Altieri family--has an altar-piece, by _Carlo Maratta_, representing
five saints canonized by Clement X., presented to the Virgin by St.
Peter. On the floor is the incised monument of a bishop of Sutri.
The second chapel--which contains a fine cinque-cento tomb--is that of
the Rosary. Its ceiling, representing the Mysteries of the Rosary, is by
_Marcello Venusti_; the history of St. Catherine of Siena is by
_Giovanni de' Vecchi_; the large and beautiful Madonna with the Child
over the altar is attributed to _Fra Angelico_. Here is the tomb of
Cardinal Capranica of 1470.
Beneath the high altar, with lamps always burning before it, is a marble
sarcophagus with a beautiful figure, enclosing the body of St.
Catherine of Siena. In it her relics were deposited in 1461, by
Antoninus, archbishop of Florence. On the last pillar to the right is an
inscription stating that, "all the indulgences and privileges in every
church, of all the religious orders, mendicant or not mendicant, in
every part of the world, are granted especially to this church, where is
the body of St. Catherine of Siena."
"St. Catherine was one of twenty-five children born in wedlock to
Jacopo and Lupa Benincasa, citizens of Siena. Her father exercised
the trade of dyer and fuller. In the year of her birth, 1347, Siena
reached the climax of its power and splendour. It was then that the
plague of Bocaccio began to rage, which swept off 80,000 citizens,
and interrupted the building of the great Duomo. In the midst of so
large a family and during these troubled times, Catherine grew
almost unnoticed, but it was not long before she manifested her
peculiar disposition. At six years old she already saw visions and
longed for a monastic life: about the same time she used to collect
her childish companions together and preach to them. As she grew
her wishes became stronger; she refused the proposals which her
parents made that she should marry, and so vexed them by her
obstinacy that they imposed on her the most servile duties in their
household. These she patiently fulfilled, at the same time pursuing
her own vocation with unwearied ardour. She scarcely slept at all,
and ate no food but vegetables and a little bread, scourged
herself, wore sackcloth, and became emaciated, weak, and half
delirious. At length the firmness of her character and the force of
her hallucination won the day. Her parents consented to her
assuming the Dominican robe, and at the age of thirteen she entered
the monastic life. From this moment till her death we see in her
the ecstatic, the philanthropist, and the politician combined to a
remarkable degree. For three whole years she never left her cell
except to go to church, maintaining an almost unbroken silence.
Yet, when she returned to the world, convinced at length of having
won by prayer and pain the favour of her Lord, it was to preach to
infuriated mobs, to toil among men dying of the plague, to execute
diplomatic negotiations, to harangue the republic of Florence, to
correspond with queens, and to interpose between kings and popes.
In the midst of this varied and distracting career she continued to
see visions, and to fast and scourge herself. The domestic virtues
and the personal wants and wishes of a woman were annihilated in
her; she lived for the Church, for the poor, and for Christ, whom
she imagined to be constantly supporting her. At length she died
(at Rome, on the 29th of April, 1380, in her 33rd year) worn out by
inward conflicts, by the tension of a half-delirious ecstasy, by
want of food and sleep, and by the excitement of political
life."--_Cornhill Mag._ Sept. 1866.
On the right of the high altar is a statue of St. John, by _Obicci_,--on
the left is the famous statue of Christ, by _Michael Angelo_. This is
one of the sculptures which Francis I. tried hard to obtain for Paris.
Its effect is marred by the bronze drapery.
Behind, in the choir, are the tombs of two Medici popes. On the left is
Leo X., Giovanni de Medici (1513--21). This great pope, son of Lorenzo
the Magnificent, was destined to the papacy from his cradle. He was
ordained at seven years old, was made a cardinal at seventeen, and pope
at thirty-eight, and at the installation procession to the Lateran, rode
upon the same white horse, upon which he had fought and had been taken
prisoner at the battle of Ravenna. His reign was one of fêtes and
pleasures. He was the great patron of artists and poets, and Raphael and
Ariosto rose into eminence under his protection. His tomb is from a
design of Antonio di Sangallo, but the figure of the pope is by
Raffaello da Montelupo.
Near the foot of Leo X.'s tomb is the flat monumental stone of Cardinal
Bembo, his friend, and the friend of Raphael, who died 1547. His epitaph
has been changed. The original inscription, half-pagan, half-Christian,
ran:
"Hic Bembus jacet Aonidum laus maxima Phœbi
Cum sole, et luna vix periturus honos.
Hic et fama jacet, spes, et suprema galeri
Quam non ulla queat restituisse dies.
Hic jacet exemplar vitæ omni fraude carentis,
Summa jacet, summa hic cum pietate fides."
On the right of the choir is the tomb, by Sangallo, of Clement VII.,
Giulio de Medici (1523--34), son of the Giulio who fell in the
conspiracy of the Pazzi,--who in his unhappy reign saw the sack of Rome
(1527) under the Constable de Bourbon, and the beginning of the
separation from England under Henry VIII. The figure of the pope is by
_Baccio Bandinelli_. Among other graves here is that of the English
Cardinal Howard, ob. 1694. Just beyond the choir is a passage leading to
a door into the Via S. Ignazio. Immediately on the left is the slab tomb
of Fra Angelico da Fiesole. It is inscribed:
"Hic jacet Vene Pictor Fl. Jo. de Florentia Ordinis
prædicatorum, 1404.
"Non mihi sit laudi quod eram velut alter Apelles,
Sed quod lucra tuis omnia, Christe, dabam.
Altera nam terris opera exstant, altero cœlo.
Urbs me Johannem flos tulit Etruriæ."[314]
"Fra Angelico was simple and most holy in his manners,--and let
this serve for a token of his simplicity, that Pope Nicholas one
morning offering him refreshment, he scrupled to eat flesh without
the licence of his superior, forgetful for the moment of the
dispensing authority of the pontiff. He shunned altogether the
commerce of the world, and living in holiness and in purity, was as
loving towards the poor on earth as I think his soul must be now in
heaven. He worked incessantly at his art, nor would he ever paint
other than sacred subjects. He might have been rich, but cared not
to be so, saying that true riches consisted rather in being content
with little. He might have ruled over many, but willed it not,
saying there was less trouble and hazard of sin in obeying others.
Dignity and authority were within his grasp, but he disregarded
them, affirming that he sought no other advancement than to escape
hell and draw nigh to Paradise. He was most meek and temperate, and
by a chaste life loosened himself from the snares of the world,
ofttimes saying that the student of painting hath need of quiet and
to live without anxiety, and that the dealers in the things of
Christ ought to live habitually with Christ. Never was he seen in
anger with the brethren, which appears to me a thing most
marvellous, and all but incredible; his admonitions to his friends
were simple and always softened by a smile. Whoever sought to
employ him, he answered with the utmost courtesy, that he would do
his part willingly so the prior were content.--In sum, this never
sufficiently to be lauded father was most humble and modest in all
his words and deeds, and in his paintings graceful and devout; and
the saints which he painted have more of the air and aspect of
saints than those of any other artist. He was wont never to retouch
or amend any of his paintings, but left them always as they had
come from his hand at first, believing, as he said, that such was
the will of God. Some say that he never took up his pencil without
previous prayer. He never painted a crucifix without tears bathing
his cheeks; and throughout his works, in the countenance and
attitude of all his figures, the correspondent impress of his
sincere and exalted appreciation of the Christian religion is
recognisable. Such was this verily Angelic father, who spent the
whole time of his life in the service of God and in doing good to
the world and to his neighbour. And truly a gift like his could not
descend on any but a man of most saintly life, for a painter must
be holy himself before he can depict holiness."--_Lord Lindsay,
from Vasari._
In the same passage are tombs of Cardinal Alessandrino, by Giacomo della
Porta; of Cardinal Pimentel, by Bernini; and of Cardinal Bonelli, by
Carlo Rainaldi.
Beyond this, in the left transept, is the Chapel of S. Domenico, with
eight black columns, appropriate to the colour of the Order, and an
interesting picture of the saint. Here is the tomb of Benedict XIII.,
Vincenzo-Maria Orsini (1724--30), by Pietro Bracci. This pope, who had
been a Dominican monk, laboured hard in his short reign for the
reformation of the Church, and the morals of the clergy.
Over a door leading to the Sacristy are frescoes representing the
election of Eugenius IV. in 1431, and of Nicholas V. in 1447, which both
took place in this church. The altar of the sacristy has a Crucifixion,
by Andrea Sacchi.
Returning down the left aisle, the second chapel, counting from this
end, is that of the Lante family, which contains the fine tomb of the
Duchess Lante, ob. 1840, by _Tenerani_, with the Angel of the
Resurrection, a sublime upward-gazing figure seated upon the
sarcophagus. Here is a picture of St. James, by _Baroccio_.
The third chapel is that of S. Vincenzo Ferreri, apostle of the Order of
Preachers, with a miracle-working picture, by _Bernardo Castelli_. The
fourth chapel--of the Grazioli family--has on the right a statue of St.
Sebastian, by _Mino da Fiesole_, and over the altar a lovely head of our
Saviour, by _Perugino_. This chapel was purchased by the Grazioli from
the old family of Maffei, of which there are some fine tombs. The fifth
chapel--of the Patrizi family--contains the famous miraculous picture
called "La Madonna Consolatrice degli afflitti," in honour of which Pope
Gregory XVI. conceded so many indulgences, as we read by the
inscription.
"La santità di N. S. Gregorio Papa XVI. con breve in data 17 Sept.
1836. Ho accordato l'indulgenzia plenaria a chiunque confessato e
communicato visiterà divotamente questa santa imagine della B.
Vergine sotto il titolo di consolatrice degli afflitti nella
seconda dominica di Luglio e suo ottavo di ciascun anno: concede
altresi la parziale indulgenza di 200 giorni in qualunque giorno
dell' anno a chiunque almeno contrito visiterà la detta S.
Immagine: le dette indulgenze poi sono pure applicabili alle
benedette anime del purgatorio."
The last chapel, belonging to a Spanish nobleman, contains the picture
of the Crucifixion, which is said to have conversed with Sta. Rosa di
Lima.
Near the entrance is the tomb of Cardinal Giacomo Tebaldi, ob. 1466, and
beneath it that of Francesco Tornabuoni, by _Mino da Fiesole_. It was
for the tomb of the wife of this Tornabuoni, who died in childbirth,
that the wonderful relief of Verocchio, now in the Uffizi at Florence,
was executed. In the pavement is the gravestone of Paulus Manutius, the
printer, son of the famous Aldus Manutius of Venice, with the
inscription, "Paulo Manutio Aldi Filio. Obiit CIƆIƆLXXIV."
The great _Dominican Convent of the Minerva_, lately suppressed, was the
residence of the General of the Order. It contains the _Bibliotheca
Casanatensis_ (so called from its founder, Cardinal Casanata), the
largest library in Rome after that of the Vatican, comprising 120,000
printed volumes and 4500 MSS. It is open from 8 to 11 A.M., and 1½ to
3½ P.M. This convent has always been connected with the history of
the Inquisition. Here, on June 22, 1633, Galileo was tried before its
tribunal for the "heresy" of saying that the earth went round the sun,
instead of the sun round the earth, and was forced to recant upon his
knees, this "accursed, heretical, and detestable doctrine." As he rose
from his humiliation, he is said to have consoled himself by adding, in
an undertone, "E pur si muove." When the "Palace of the Holy Office" was
stormed by the mob in the revolution of 1848, it was feared that the
Dominican convent would have been burnt down.
The very beautiful cloister of the convent, which has a vaulted roof
richly painted in arabesques, contains grand fifteenth century
tombs,--of Cardinal Tiraso, ob. 1502, and of Cardinal Astorgius, ob.
1503. S. Antonino, archbishop of Florence, who lived in the reigns of
Eugenius IV. and Nicholas V., was prior of this convent.
From the Minerva, the _Via del Piè di Marmo_, so called from a gigantic
marble foot which stands on one side of it, leads to the Corso.[315]
CHAPTER XV.
THE BORGO AND ST. PETER'S.
Via Tordinona--S. Salvatore in Lauro--House of Raphael--S. Giovanni
de' Fiorentini--Bridge and Castle of S. Angelo--Sta. Maria
Traspontina--Palazzo Giraud--Piazza Scossa-Cavalli--Hospital of
Santo Spirito--Piazza and Obelisk of the Vatican--S. Peter's; its
portico, tombs, crypts, dome, and sacristy--Churches of S. Stefano
and Sta. Marta--Il Cimeterio dei Tedeschi--Palazzo del
Santo-Uffizio--S. Salvatore in Torrione--S. Michaele in Sassia.
Continuing in a direct course from the Piazza Borghese, we pass through
a series of narrow dirty streets quite devoid of interest, but bordering
on one side upon the Tiber, of which--with its bridge, S. Angelo and St.
Peter's--beautiful views may be obtained from little courts and narrow
strips of shore, at the back of the houses.
A short distance after passing (on left) the Locanda dell' Orso, where
Montaigne used to stay when he was in Rome, and beneath which are some
curious vaulted chambers of _c._ A.D. 1500, the street, which repeatedly
changes its name, is called _Via Tordinona_, from the Tor di Nona, which
once stood here, but was destroyed in 1690. It was used as a prison, as
is shown by the verse of Regnier:
"Qu'un barisel vous mit dedans la tour de Nonne."
One of the narrow streets on the left of the Via Tordinona debouches
into the Via dei Coronari, close to the _Church of S. Salvatore in
Lauro_, built on the site of a laurel-grove, which flourished near the
portico of Europa. It contains a picture of the Nativity, by _Pietro da
Cortona_, and a modern work of _Gagliardi_, representing S. Emidio, S.
Nicolo da Tolentino, and S. Giacomo della Marina, the three protectors
of Ancona. In a side chapel, opening out of the cloisters, is the rich
tomb of Pope Eugenius IV. (Gabriele Condolmieri, ob. 1439), with his
recumbent figure by Isaia da Pisa. Francesco Salviati painted a portrait
of this pope for the adjoining convent, to which he had belonged, as
well as a fine fresco of the Marriage of Cana.[316]
(There are several other fine monuments in the same chapel with the
tomb, which in 1867 was given up as a barrack to the Flemish zouaves, at
the great risk of injury to its delicate carvings.)
Passing the _Apollo Theatre_, the Via Tordinona emerges upon the quay of
the Tiber, opposite S. Angelo. Hence several streets diverge into the
heart of the city.
(At the corner of the Via di Banchi is a house with a frieze, richly
sculptured with lions' heads, &c. On the left is the _Church of San
Celso in Banchi_, in front of which Lorenzo Colonna, the protonotary,
was murdered by the Orsini and Santa Croce, immediately after the death
of Sixtus IV. (1484); and where his mother, finding his head cut off,
and seizing it by the hair, shrieked forth her curses upon his enemies.
On the right, further down the street, is the _Church of Sta. Caterina
da Siena_, which contains an interesting altar-piece by _Girolamo
Genga_, representing the return of Gregory XI. from Avignon, which was
due to her influence.)
The house joining the Ponte S. Angelo is said to have been that of the
"Violinista," the friend of Raphael, who is familiar to us from his
portrait in the Sciarra Palace. Some say that Raphael died while he was
on a visit to him. But the best authorities maintain that he died in a
house built for him by Bramante, in the Piazza Rusticucci, which was
pulled down to enlarge the Piazza of St. Peter's. No. 124, Via Coronari,
not far from the Ponte S. Angelo, is shown as the house in which the
great painter lived previously to this, and is that which he bequeathed
to the chapel in the Pantheon in which he is buried. It was partly
rebuilt in 1705, when Carlo Maderno painted on its façade a portrait of
Raphael in _chiaro-scuro_, now almost obliterated. The house at present
belongs to the canons of Sta. Maria Maggiore.
(The Via _S. Giovanni de' Fiorentini_ leads to the _Church_ of that
name, abutting picturesquely into the angle of the Tiber. This is the
national church of the Tuscans, and was built at the expense of the city
of Florence. In the tribune are tombs of the Falconieri family. Here are
several fine pictures; a St. Jerome writing, by _Cigoli_, who is buried
in this church; St. Jerome praying before a crucifix, _Tito Santi_[317]
(1538--1603); St. Francis, _Tito Santi_; SS. Cosmo and Damian condemned
to martyrdom by fire,--a grand work of _Salvator Rosa_.
"Some of the altar-pieces of Salvator-Rosa (1615-1673), are well
conceived and full of effect, especially when they represent a
horrible subject, like the martyrdom in S. Giovanni de'
Fiorentini."--Lanzi, ii. 165.
The Chapel of the Crucifix is painted by _Lanfranco_: the third chapel
on the right has frescoes by _Tempesta_ on the roof, relating to the
history of S. Lorenzo.
The building of this church was begun in the reign of Leo X. by
Sansovino, who, for want of space, laid its foundations, at enormous
expense, in the bed of the Tiber. While overlooking this, he fell from a
scaffold, and being dangerously hurt, was obliged to give up his place
to Antonio da Sangallo.[318] Soon after Pope Leo died, and the work,
with many others, was suspended during the reign of Adrian VI. Under
Clement VII. Sansovino returned, but was driven away, robbed of all his
possessions in the sack of Rome, under the Constable de Bourbon. The
church was finished by Giacomo della Porta in 1588, but Alessandro
Galileo added the façade in 1725.
"En 1488, une affreuse épidémie décimait les malheureux habitants
des environs de Rome; les mourants étaient abandonnés, les cadavres
restaient sans sépulture. Aussitôt quelques Florentins forment une
confrérie sous le titre de _la Pitié_, pour rendre aux pestiférés
les derniers devoirs de la charité chrétienne: c'est à cette
confrérie qu'on doit la belle église de Saint-Jean des Florentins,
à Strada Giulia."--_Gournerie, Rome Chrétienne._
The _Ponte S. Angelo_ is the Pons Elius of Hadrian, built as an approach
to his mausoleum, and only intended for this, as another public bridge
existed close by, at the time of its construction. It is almost entirely
ancient, except the parapets. The statues of St. Peter and St. Paul, at
the extremity, were erected by Clement VII., in the place of two
chapels, in 1530, and the angels, by Clement IX., in 1688. The pedestal
of the third angel on the right is a relic of the siege of Rome in 1849,
and bears the impress of a cannon-ball.
These angels, which have been called the "breezy maniacs" of Bernini,
are only from his designs. The two angels which he executed himself, and
intended for this bridge, are now at S. Andrea delle Fratte. The idea of
Clement IX. was a fine one, that "an avenue of the heavenly host should
be assembled to welcome the pilgrim to the shrine of the great apostle."
Dante saw the bridge of S. Angelo divided lengthways by barriers to
facilitate the movement of the crowds going to and from St Peter's on
the occasion of the first jubilee, 1300.
"Come i Romani per l'esercito molto,
L'anno del giubbileo, su per lo ponte
Hanno a passar la gente modo tolto;
Che dall' un lato tutti hanno la fronte
Verso 'l castello, e vanno a Santo Pietro,
Dall' altra sponda vanno verso 'l monte."
_Inferno_, xviii. 29.
From the Ponte S. Angelo, when the Tiber is low, are visible the remains
of the bridge by which the ancient _Via Triumphalis_ crossed the river.
Close by, where Santo Spirito now stands, was the Porta Triumphalis, by
which victors entered the city in triumph.
Facing the bridge, is the famous _Castle of S. Angelo_, built by the
Emperor Hadrian as his family tomb, because the last niche in the
imperial mausoleum of Augustus was filled when the ashes of Nerva were
laid there. The first funeral here was that of Elius Verus, the first
adopted son of Hadrian, who died before him. The emperor himself died at
Baiæ, but his remains were transported hither from a temporary tomb at
Pozzuoli by his successor Antoninus Pius, by whom the mausoleum was
completed in A.D. 140. Here, also, were buried, Antoninus Pius, A.D.
161; Marcus Aurelius, 180; Commodus, 192; and Septimius Severus, in an
urn of gold, enclosed in one of alabaster, A.D. 211; Caracalla, in 217,
was the last emperor interred here. The well-known lines of Byron:
"Turn to the mole which Hadrian rear'd on high,
Imperial mimic of old Egypt's piles,
Colossal copyist of deformity,
Whose travell'd phantasy from the far Nile's
Enormous model, doom'd the artist's toils
To build for giants, and for his vain earth,
His shrunken ashes, raise this dome! How smiles
The gazer's eye with philosophic mirth,
To view the huge design which sprung from such a birth."
seem rather applicable to the _Pyramid_ of Caius Cestius than to this
mausoleum.
The castle, as it now appears, is but the skeleton of the magnificent
tomb of the emperors. Procopius, writing in the sixth century, describes
its appearance in his time. "It is built," he says, "of Parian marble;
the square blocks fit closely to each other without any cement. It has
four equal sides, each a stone's throw in length. In height it rises
above the walls of the city. On the summit are statues of men and
horses, of admirable workmanship, in Parian marble." Canina, in his
"Architectura Romana," gives a restoration of the mausoleum, which shows
how it consisted of three storeys: 1, a quadrangular basement, the upper
part intersected with Doric pillars, between which were spaces for
epitaphs of the dead within, and surmounted at the corners by marble
equestrian statues; 2, a circular storey, with fluted Ionic colonnades:
3, a circular storey, surrounded by Corinthian columns, between which
were statues. The whole was surmounted by a pyramidal roof, ending in a
bronze fir-cone.
"The mausoleum which Hadrian erected for himself on the further
bank of the Tiber far outshone the tomb of Augustus, which it
nearly confronted. Of the size and dignity which characterized this
work of Egyptian massiveness, we may gain a conception from the
existing remains; but it requires an effort of imagination to
transform the scarred and shapeless bulk before us, into the
graceful pile which rose column upon column, surmounted by a gilded
dome of span almost unrivalled." _Merivale_, ch. lxvi.
The history of the Mausoleum, in the middle ages, is almost the history
of Rome. It was probably first turned into a fortress by Honorius, A.D.
423. From Theodoric it derives the name of "Carcer Theodorici." In 537,
it was besieged by Vitiges, when the defending garrison, reduced to the
last extremity, hurled down all the magnificent statues which decorated
the cornice, upon the besiegers. In A.D. 498 Pope Symmachus removed the
bronze fir-cone at the apex of the roof to the court of St. Peter's,
whence it was afterwards transferred to the Vatican garden, where it is
still to be seen between two bronze peacocks, which probably stood on
either side of the entrance.
Belisarius defended the castle against Totila, whose Gothic troops
captured and held it for three years, after which it was taken by
Narses.
It was in 530 that the event occurred which gave the building its
present name. Pope Gregory the Great was leading a penitential
procession to St. Peter's, in order to offer up prayers for the staying
of the great pestilence which followed the inundation of 589; when, as
he was crossing the bridge, even while the people were falling dead
around him, he looked up at the mausoleum, and saw an angel on its
summit, sheathing a bloody sword,[319] while a choir of angels around
chaunted with celestial voices, the anthem, since adopted by the Church
in her vesper service--"_Regina cœli, lætare--quia quem meruisti
portare--resurrexit, sicut dixit, Alleluja_"--To which the earthly voice
of the pope solemnly responded, "_Ora pro nobis Deum, Alleluja_."[320]
In the tenth century the fortress was occupied by the infamous Marozia,
who, in turn, brought her three husbands (Alberic, Count of Tusculum;
Guido, Marquis of Tuscany; and Hugo, King of Italy) thither, to
tyrannise with her over Rome. It was within the walls of this building
that Alberic, her son by her first husband, waiting upon his royal
stepfather at table, threw a bowl of water over him, when Hugo retorted
by a blow, which was the signal for an insurrection, the people taking
part with Alberic, putting the king to flight, and imprisoning Marozia.
Shut up within these walls, Pope John XI. (931-936), son of Marozia by
her first husband, ruled under the guidance of his stronger-minded
brother Alberic; here, also, Octavian, son of Alberic, and grandson of
Marozia, succeeded in forcing his election as John XII. (being the
first pope who took a new name), and scandalised Christendom by a life
of murder, robbery, adultery, and incest.
In 974 the castle was seized by Cencio (Crescenzio Nomentano), the
consul, who raised up an anti-pope (Boniface VII.) here, with the
determination of destroying the temporal power of the popes, and
imprisoned and murdered two popes, Benedict VI. (972), and John XIV.
(984), within these walls. In 996 another lawful pope, Gregory V.,
calling in the emperor Otho to his assistance, took the castle, and
beheaded Cencio, though he had promised him life if he would surrender.
From this governor the fortress long held the name of Castello de
Crescenzio, or Turris Crescentii, by which it is described in mediæval
writings. A second Cencio supported another anti-pope, Cadolaus, here in
1063, against Pope Alexander II. A third Cencio imprisoned Gregory VII.
here in 1084. From this time the possession of the castle was a constant
point of contest between popes and anti-popes. In 1313 Arlotto degli
Stefaneschi, having demolished most of the other towers in the city,
arranged the same fate for S. Angelo, but it was saved by cession to the
Orsini. It was from hence, on December 15, 1347, that Rienzi fled to
Bohemia, at the end of his first period of power, his wife having
previously made her escape disguised as a friar.
"The cause of final ruin to this monument" is described by Nibby to have
been the resentment of the citizens against a French governor who
espoused the cause of the anti-pope (Clement VII.) against Urban VI. in
1378. It was then that the marble casings were all torn from the walls
and used as street pavements.
A drawing of Sangallo of 1465 shows the "upper part of the fortress
crowned with high square towers and turreted buildings; a cincture of
bastions and massive square towers girding the whole; two square-built
bulwarks flanking the extremity of the bridge, which was then so
connected with these outworks that passengers would have immediately
found themselves inside the fortress after crossing the river.
Marlianus, 1588, describes its double cincture of fortifications--a
large round tower at the inner extremity of the bridge; two towers with
high pinnacles, and the cross on their summits, the river flowing all
around."[321]
The castle began to assume its present aspect under Boniface IX. in
1395. John XXIII., 1411, commenced the covered way to the Vatican, which
was finished by Alexander VI.; and roofed by Urban VIII., in 1630. By
the last-named pope the great outworks of the fortress were built under
Bernini, and furnished with cannon made from the bronze roof of the
Pantheon. Under Paul III. the interior was decorated with frescoes, and
a colossal marble angel erected on the summit, in the place of a chapel
(S. Angelo inter Nubes), built by Boniface IV. The marble angel was
exchanged by Benedict XIV. for the existing angel of bronze, by a Dutch
artist, Verschaffelt.
"Paul III. voulant justifier le nom donné à cette forteresse, fit
placer au sommet de l'édifice une statue de marbre, représentant un
ange tenant à la main une épée nue. Cet ouvrage de Raphaël de
Montelupo a été remplacé, du temps de Benoit XIV., par une statue
de bronze qui fournit cette belle réponse à un officier français
assiégé dans le fort. 'Je me rendrai quand l'ange remettra son épée
dans le fourreau.'
" ... Cet ange a l'air naïf d'une jeune fille de dix-huit ans, et
ne cherche qu'à bien remettre son épée dans le
fourreau."--_Stendhal_, i. 33.
"I suppose no one ever looked at this statue critically--at least,
for myself, I never could; nor can I remember now whether, as a
work of art, it is above or below criticism; perhaps both. With its
vast wings, poised in air, as seen against the deep blue skies of
Rome, or lighted up by the golden sunset, to me it was ever like
what it was intended to represent--like a vision."--_Jameson's
Sacred Art_, p. 98.
Of the castle, as we now see it externally, only the quadrangular
basement is of the time of Hadrian; the round tower is of that of Urban
VIII., its top added by Paul III. The four round towers of the outworks,
called after the four Evangelists, are of Nicholas V., 1447.
The _interior_ of the fortress can be visited by an order. Excavations
made in 1825 have laid open the sepulchral chamber in the midst of the
basement. Here stood, in the centre, the porphyry sarcophagus of
Hadrian, which was stolen by Pope Innocent II. to be used as his own
tomb in the Lateran, where it was destroyed by the fire of 1360, the
cover alone escaping, which was used for the tomb of Otho II., in the
atrium of St. Peter's, and which, after filling this office for seven
centuries, is now the baptismal font of that basilica. A spiral passage,
thirty feet high, and eleven wide, up which a chariot could be driven,
gradually ascends through the solid mass of masonry. There is
wonderfully little to be seen. A saloon of the time of Paul III. is
adorned with frescoes of the life of Alexander the Great, by _Pierino
del Vaga_. This room would be used by the pope in case of his having to
take refuge in S. Angelo. An adjoining room, adorned with a stucco
frieze of Tritons and Nereids, is that in which Cardinal Caraffa was
strangled (1561) under Pius IV., for alleged abuses of authority under
his uncle, Paul IV.--his brother, the Marquis Caraffa, being beheaded in
the castle the same night. The reputed prison of Beatrice Cenci is
shown, but it is very uncertain that she was ever confined here,--also
the prison of Cagliostro, and that of Benvenuto Cellini, who escaped,
and broke his leg in trying to let himself down by a rope from the
ramparts. The statue of the angel by _Montelupo_ is to be seen stowed
away in a dark corner. Several horrible _trabocchette_ (oubliettes) are
shown.
On the roof, from which there is a beautiful view, are many modern
prisons, where prisoners suffer terribly from the summer sun beating
upon their flat roofs.
Among the sculptures found here were the Barberini Faun, now at Munich,
the Dancing Faun, at Florence, and the Bust of Hadrian at the Vatican.
The sepulchral inscriptions of the Antonines existed till 1572, when
they were cut up by Gregory XIII. (Buoncompagni), and the marble used to
decorate a chapel in St Peter's! The magnificent Easter display of
fireworks (from an idea of Michael Angelo, carried out by Bernini),
called the girandola, used to be exhibited here, but now takes place at
S. Pietro in Montorio, or from the Pincio. From 1849 to 1870, the castle
was occupied by French troops, and their banner floated here, except on
great festivals, when it was exchanged for that of the pope.
Running behind, and crossing the back streets of the Borgo, is the
covered passage intended for the escape of the popes to the castle. It
was used by Alexander VI. when invaded by Charles VIII. in 1494, and
twice by Clement VII. (Giulio di Medici), who fled, in 1527, from
Moncada, viceroy of Naples, and in May, 1527, during the terrible sack
of Rome by the troops of the Constable de Bourbon.
"Pendant que l'on se battait, Clement VII. était en prières devant
l'autel de sa chapelle au Vatican, détail singulier chez un homme
qui avait commencé sa carrière par être militaire. Lorsque les cris
des mourants lui annoncèrent la prise de la ville, il s'enfuit du
Vatican au château St. Ange par le long corridor qui s'élève
au-dessus des plus hautes maisons. L'historien Paul-Jove, qui
suivait Clement VII., relevait sa longue robe pour qu'il pût
marcher plus vîte, et lorsque le pape fut arrivé au pont qui le
laissait à découvert pour un instant, Paul-Jove le couvrit de son
manteau et de son chapeau violet, de peur qu'il ne fût reconnu à
son rochet blanc et ajusté par quelque soldat bon tireur.
"Pendant cette longue fuite le long du corridor, Clement VII.
apercevait au-dessous de lui, par les petites fenêtres, ses sujets
poursuivis par les soldats vainqueurs qui déjà se répandaient dans
les rues. Ils ne faisaient aucun quartier à personne, et tuaient à
coups de pique tout ce qu'ils pouvaient atteindre."--_Stendhal_, i.
388.
"The Escape" consists of two passages; the upper open like a loggia, the
lower covered, and only lighted by loop-holes. The keys of both are kept
by the pope himself.
S. Angelo is at the entrance of _the Borgo_, promised at the Italian
invasion of September, 1870, as the sanctuary of the papacy, the tiny
sovereignty where the temporal sway of the popes should remain
undisturbed,--the sole relic left to them of all their ancient
dominions. The Borgo, or _Leonine City_, is surrounded by walls of its
own, which were begun in A.D. 846, by Pope Leo IV., for the better
defence of St. Peter's from the Saracens, who had been carrying their
devastations up to the very walls of Rome. These walls, 10,800 feet in
circumference, were completed in four years by labourers summoned from
every town and monastery of the Roman states. Pope Leo himself daily
encouraged their exertions by his presence. In 852 the walls were
solemnly consecrated by a vast procession of the whole Roman clergy
barefooted, their heads strewn with ashes, who sprinkled them with holy
water, while the pope offered a prayer composed by himself,[322] at each
of the three gates.
The adjoining Piazza Pia is decorated with a fountain erected by Pius
IX. The principal of the streets which meet here is the Via del Borgo
Nuovo, the main artery to St. Peter's. On its left is the _Church of
Sta. Maria Traspontina_, built 1566, containing two columns which bear
inscriptions, stating that they were those to which St. Peter and St.
Paul were respectively attached, when they suffered flagellation by
order of Nero!
This church occupies the site of a Pyramid supposed to have been erected
to Scipio Africanus, who died at Liternum, B.C. 183, and which was
regarded in the middle ages as the tomb of Romulus. Its sides were once
coated with marble, which was stripped off by Donus I. This pyramid is
represented on the bronze doors of St Peter's.
A little further is the _Palazzo Giraud_, belonging to Prince Torlonia.
It was built, 1506, by Bramante, for Cardinal Adriano da Corneto,[323]
who gave it to Henry VIII., by whom it was given to Cardinal Campeggio.
Thus it was for a short time the residence of the English ambassador
before the Reformation. Innocent XII. converted it into a college for
priests, by whom it was sold to the Marquis Giraud.
Facing this palace is the _Piazza Scossa Cavalli_, with a pretty
fountain. Its name bears witness to a curious legend, which tells how
when St. Helena returned from Palestine, bringing with her the stone on
which Abraham was about to sacrifice Isaac, and that on which the Virgin
Mary sate down at the time of the presentation of the Saviour in the
Temple, the horses drawing these precious relics stood still at this
spot, and refused every effort to make them move. Then Christian people,
"recognising the finger of God," erected a church on this spot (S.
Giacomo Scossa Cavalli), where the stones are still to be seen.
The Strada del Borgo Sto. Spirito contains the immense _Hospital of
Santo Spirito_, running along the bank of the Tiber. This establishment
was founded in 1198 by Innocent III. Sixtus IV., in 1471, ordered it to
be rebuilt by Bacio Pintelli, who added a hall 376 feet long by 44 high
and 37 wide. Under Benedict XIV., Ferdinando Fuga built another great
hall. The altar in the midst of the great hall is the only work of
Andrea Palladio in Rome. The church was designed by Bacio Pintelli, but
built by Antonio di San Gallo under Paul III. Under Gregory XIII.,
Ottaviano Mascherino built the palace of the governor, which unites the
hospital with the church.
The institution comprises a hospital for every kind of disease,
containing in ordinary times 1620 beds, a number which can be almost
doubled in time of necessity; a lunatic asylum containing an average of
450 inmates; and a foundling hospital, where children are received from
all parts of the papal states, and even from the Neapolitan towns.
Upwards of 3000 foundlings pass through the hospital annually, but the
mortality is very great,--in the return of 1846, as much as fifty-seven
per cent. The person who wishes to deposit an infant rings a bell, when
a little bed is turned towards the grille near the door, in which the
baby is deposited. Close to this is another grille, without any apparent
use. "What is that for?" you ask. "Because, when nurses come in from the
country, they might be tempted to take the children for money, and yet
not feel any natural tenderness towards them, but by looking through the
second grille, they can see the child, and discover if it is
_simpatico_, and if not, they can go away and leave it."
At the end of the street one enters the Piazza Rusticucci (where Raphael
died), from which open the magnificent colonnades of Bernini, which lead
the eye up to the façade of St. Peter's, while the middle distance is
broken by the silvery spray of its glittering fountains.
The _Colonnades_ have 284 columns, are sixty-one feet wide, and
sixty-four high; they enclose an area of 777 English feet; they were
built by Bernini for Alexander VII., 1657-67. In the centre is the
famous red granite _Obelisk of the Vatican_, brought to Rome from
Heliopolis by Caligula, in a ship which Pliny describes as being "nearly
as long as the left side of the port of Ostia." It was used to adorn the
circus of Nero, and was brought from a position near the present
sacristy of St. Peter's by Sixtus V. in 1586. Here it was elevated by
Domenico Fontana, who estimated its weight at 963,537 Roman pounds; and
employed 800 men, 150 horses, and 46 cranes in its removal.
The obelisk was first exorcised as a pagan idol, and then dedicated to
the Cross. Its removal was preceded by high mass in St. Peter's, after
which Pope Sixtus bestowed a solemn benediction upon Fontana and his
workmen, and ordained that none should speak, upon pain of death, during
the raising of the obelisk. The immense mass was slowly rising upon its
base, when suddenly it ceased to move, and it was evident that the ropes
were giving way. An awful moment of suspense ensued, when the breathless
silence was broken by a cry of "Acqua alle funi!"--_throw water on the
ropes_, and the workmen, acting on the advice so unexpectedly received,
again saw the monster move, and gradually settle on its base. The man
who saved the obelisk was Bresca, a sailor of Bordighiera, a village of
the Riviera di Ponente, and Sixtus V., in his gratitude, promised him
that his native village should ever henceforth have the privilege of
furnishing the Easter palms to St. Peter's. A vessel laden with
palm-branches, which abound in Bordighiera, is still annually sent to
the Tiber in the week before Palm Sunday, and the palms, after being
prepared and plaited by the nuns of S. Antonio Abbate, are used in the
ceremonial in St. Peter's.
The height of the whole obelisk is 132 feet, that of the shaft,
eighty-three feet. Upon the shaft is the inscription to Augustus and
Tiberius: "DIVO. CÆS. DIVI. JULII. F. AUGUSTO.--TI. CÆSARI. DIVI. AUG.
F.--AUGUSTA. SACRUM." The inscriptions on the base show its modern
dedication to the Cross[324]--"Ecce Crux Domini--Fugite partes
adversæ--Vicit Leo de tribu Juda."
"Sixte-quint s'applaudissait du succès, comme de l'œuvre la plus
gigantesque des temps modernes; des médailles furent frappées;
Fontana fut créé, noble romain, chevalier de l'Éperon d'or, et
reçut une gratification de 5,000 écus, indépendamment des matériaux
qui avaient servi à l'entreprise, et dont la valeur s'élevait à
20,000 écus (108,000 fr.); enfin des poëmes, dans toutes les
langues, sur ce nouveau triomphe de la croix, furent adressés aux
différents souverains de l'Europe."--_Gournerie, Rome Chrétienne_,
ii. 232.
"In summer the great square basks in unalluring magnificence in the
midday sun. Its tall obelisk sends but a slim shadow to travel
round the oval plane, like the gnomon of a huge dial; its fountains
murmur with a delicious dreaminess, sending up massive jets like
blocks of crystal into the hot sunshine, and receiving back a
broken spray, on which sits serene an unbroken iris, but present no
'cool grot,' where one may enjoy their freshness; and in spite of
the shorter path, the pilgrim looks with dismay at the dazzling
pavement and long flight of unsheltered steps between him and the
church, and prudently plunges into the forest of columns at either
side of the piazza, and threads his way through their uniting
shadows, intended, as an inscription[325] tells him, for this
express purpose."--_Cardinal Wiseman._
"Un jour Pie V. traversait, avec l'ambassadeur de Pologne, cette
place du Vatican. Pris d'enthousiasme au souvenir du courage des
martyrs qui l'ont arrosée de leurs larmes, et fertilisée par leur
sang, il se baisse, et saisissant dans sa main une poignée de
poussière: 'Tenez,' dit-il au représentant de cette noble nation,
'prenez cette poussière formée de la cendre des saints, et
imprégnée du sang des martyrs.'
"L'ambassadeur ne portait pas dans son cœur la foi d'un pape, ni
dans son âme les illuminations d'un saint; il reçut pourtant avec
respect cette rélique étrange à ses yeux: mais revenu en son
palais, retirant, d'une main indifférente peut-être, le linge qui
la contenait, il le trouva ensanglanté.
"La poussière avait disparu. La foi du pontife avait évoqué le sang
des martyrs, et ce sang généreux reparaissait à cet appel pour
attester, en face de l'hérésie, que l'Église romaine, au XVIe
siècle, était toujours celle pour laquelle ces héros avaient donné
leur vie sous Néron."--_Une Chrétienne à Rome._
No one can look upon the Piazza of St. Peter's without associating it
with the great religious ceremonies with which it is connected,
especially that of the Easter Benediction.
"Out over the great balcony stretches a white awning, where priests
and attendants are collected, and where the pope will soon be seen.
Below, the piazza is alive with moving masses. In the centre are
drawn up long lines of soldiery, with yellow and red pompons, and
glittering helmets and bayonets. These are surrounded by crowds on
foot, and at the outer rim are packed carriages filled and overrun
with people, mounted on the seats and boxes. What a sight it
is!--above us the great dome of St. Peter's, and below, the grand
embracing colonnade, and the vast space, in the centre of which
rises the solemn obelisk thronged with masses of living beings.
Peasants from the Campagna and the mountains are moving about
everywhere. Pilgrims in oil-cloth cape and with iron staff demand
charity. On the steps are rows of purple, blue, and brown
umbrellas, for there the sun blazes fiercely. Everywhere crop forth
the white hoods of Sisters of Charity, collected in groups, and
showing, among the parti-coloured dresses, like beds of
chrysanthemums in a garden. One side of the massive colonnade casts
a grateful shadow over the crowd beneath, that fill up the
intervals of its columns; but elsewhere the sun burns down and
flashes everywhere. Mounted on the colonnade are crowds of people
leaning over, beside the colossal statues. Through all the heat is
heard the constant plash of the sun-lit fountains, that wave to and
fro their veils of white spray. At last the clock strikes. In the
far balcony are seen the two great showy peacock fans, and between
them a figure clad in white, that rises from a golden chair, and
spreads his great sleeves like wings as he raises his arms in
benediction. That is the pope, Pius the Ninth. All is dead silence,
and a musical voice, sweet and penetrating, is heard chanting from
the balcony;--the people bend and kneel; with a cold gray flash,
all the bayonets gleam as the soldiers drop to their knees, and
rise to salute as the voice dies away, and the two white wings are
again waved;--then thunder the cannon,--the bells clash and
peal,--a few white papers, like huge snow-flakes, drop wavering
from the balcony;--these are Indulgences, and there is an eager
struggle for them below;--then the pope again rises, again gives
his benediction,[326] waving to and fro his right hand, three
fingers open, and making the sign of the cross,--and the peacock
fans retire, and he between them is borne away,--and Lent is
over."--_Story's Roba di Roma._
The first church which existed on or near the site of the present
building, was the oratory founded in A.D. 90, by Anacletus, bishop of
Rome, who is said to have been ordained by St. Peter himself, and who
thus marked the spot where many Christian martyrs had suffered in the
circus of Nero, and where St. Peter was buried after his crucifixion.
In 306 Constantine the Great yielded to the request of Pope Sylvester,
and began the erection of a basilica on this spot, labouring with his
own hands at the work, and himself carrying away twelve loads of earth,
in honour of the twelve apostles.[327] Anastasius describes how the body
of the great apostle was exhumed at this time, and re-interred in a
shrine of silver, enclosed in a sarcophagus of gilt bronze. The early
basilica measured 395 feet in length by 212 in width. Its nave and
aisles were divided by eighty-six marble pillars of different sizes, in
great part brought from the Septizonium of Severus, and it had an
atrium, and a _paradisus_, or quadrangular portico, along its
front.[328] Though only half the size of the present cathedral, still it
covered a greater space than any mediæval cathedral except those of
Milan and Seville, with which it ranked in size.[329]
The old basilica suffered severely in the Saracenic invasion of 846,
when some authorities maintain that even the tomb of the great apostle
was rifled of its contents, but it was restored by Leo IV., who raised
the fortifications of the Borgo for its defence.
Among the most remarkable of its early _pilgrims_ were, Theodosius, who
came to pray for a victory over Eugenius; Valentinian, emperor of the
East, with his wife Eudoxia, and his mother Galla-Placidia; Belisarius,
the great general under Justinian; Totila; Cedwalla, king of the West
Saxons, who came for baptism; Concred, king of the Mercians, who came to
remain as a monk, having cut off and consecrated his long hair at the
tomb of St. Peter; Luitprand, king of the Lombards; Ina of Wessex, who
founded a church here in honour of the Virgin, that Anglo-Saxons might
have a place of prayer, and those who died, a grave; Carloman of France,
who came for absolution and remained as a monk, first at S. Oreste
(Soracte), then at Monte Casino; Richard of England; Bertrade, wife of
Pepin, and mother of Charlemagne; Offa, the Saxon, who made his kingdom
tributary to St. Peter; Charlemagne (four times), who was crowned here
by Leo III.; Lothaire, crowned by Paschal I.; and, in the last year of
the reign of Leo IV., Ethelwolf, king of the Anglo-Saxons, who was
crowned here, remained a year, and who brought with him his boy of six
years old, afterwards the great Alfred.
Of the old basilica, the crypt is now the only remnant, and there are
collected the few relics preserved of the endless works of art with
which it was filled, and which for the most part were lost or wilfully
destroyed, when it was pulled down. Its destruction was first planned by
Nicholas V. (1450), but was not carried out till the time of Julius
II., who in 1506 began the new St. Peter's from designs of Bramante. The
four great piers and their arches above were completed, before the
deaths of both Bramante and Pope Julius interrupted the work. The next
pope, Leo X., obtained a design for a church in the form of a Latin
cross from Raphael, which was changed, after his death (on account of
expense) to a Greek cross, by Baldassare Peruzzi, who only lived to
complete the tribune. Paul III. (1534) employed Antonio di Sangallo as
an architect, who returned to the design of a Latin cross, but died
before he could carry out any of his intentions. Giulio Romano succeeded
him and died also. Then the pope, "being inspired by God," says Vasari,
sent for Michael Angelo, then in his seventy-second year, who continued
the work under Julius III., returning to the plan of a Greek cross,
enlarging the tribune and transepts, and beginning the dome on a new
plan, which he said would "raise the Pantheon in the air." The dome
designed by Michael Angelo, however, was very different to that which we
now admire, being much lower, flatter, and heavier. The present dome is
due to Giacomo della Porta, who brought the great work to a conclusion
in 1590, under Sixtus V., who devoted 100,000 gold crowns annually to
the building. In 1605 Paul V. destroyed all that remained of the old
basilica, and employed Carlo Maderno as his architect, who once more
returned to the plan of the Latin cross, and completed the present ugly
façade in 1614. The church was dedicated by Urban VIII., November 18th,
1626; the colonnade added by Alexander VII., 1667, the sacristy by Pius
VI., in 1780. The building of the present St. Peter's extended
altogether over 176 years, and its expenses were so great that Julius
II. and Leo X. were obliged to meet them by the sale of indulgences,
which led to the Reformation. The expense of the main building alone has
been estimated at 10,000,000_l._ The annual expense of repairs is
6300_l._
"St. Pierre est une sorte de ville à part dans Rome, ayant son
climat, sa température propre, sa lumière trop vive pour être
religieuse, tantôt deserte, tantôt traversée par des sociétés de
voyageurs, ou remplie d'une foule attirée par les cérémonies
religieuses (à l'époque des jubilés le nombre des pélerins s'est
parfois élevé à Rome, jusqu'à 400,000). Elle a ses reservoirs
d'eau; sa fontaine coulant perpetuellement au pied de la grande
coupole, dans un bassin de plomb, pour la commodité des travaux;
ses rampes, par lesquelles les bêtes de somme peuvent monter; sa
population fixe, habitant ses terrasses. Les San Pietriné, ouvriers
chargés de tous les travaux qu'exige la conservation d'un aussi
précieux edifice, s'y succèdent de père en fils, et forment une
corporation qui a ses lois et sa police."--_A. Du Pays._
The façade of St. Peter's is 357 feet long and 144 feet high. It is
surmounted by a balustrade six feet in height, bearing statues of the
Saviour and the Twelve Apostles. Over the central entrance is the loggia
where the pope is crowned, and whence he gives the Easter benediction.
The huge inscription runs--"In. Honorem. Principis. Apost. Paulus V.
Burghesius. Romanus. Pont. Max. A. MDCXII. Pont. VII."
"I don't like to say the façade of the church is ugly and
obtrusive. As long as the dome overawes, that façade is
supportable. You advance towards it--through, O such a noble court!
with fountains flashing up to meet the sunbeams; and right and left
of you two sweeping half-crescents of great columns; but you pass
by the courtiers and up to the steps of the throne, and the dome
seems to disappear behind it. It is as if the throne was upset, and
the king had toppled over."--_Thackeray, The Newcomes._
A wide flight of steps, at the foot of which are statues of St. Peter
by _De Fabris_, and St. Paul by _Tadolini_, lead by fine entrances to
the _Vestibule_, which is 468 feet long, 66 feet high, and 50 feet wide.
Closing it on the right is a statue of Constantine by _Bernini_--on the
left that of Charlemagne by _Cornacchini_. Over the principal entrance
(facing the door of the church) is the celebrated _Mosaic of the
Navicella_, executed 1298, by _Giotto_, and his pupil, _Pietro
Cavallini_.
"For the ancient basilica of St. Peter, Giotto executed his
celebrated mosaic of the Navicella, which has an allegorical
foundation. It represents a ship, with the disciples, on an
agitated sea; the winds, personified as demons, storm against it;
above appear the Fathers of the Old Testament speaking comfort to
the sufferers. According to the early Christian symbolization, the
ship denoted the Church. Nearer, and on the right, in a firm
attitude, stands Christ, the Rock of the Church, raising Peter from
the waves. Opposite sits a fisherman in tranquil expectation,
denoting the hope of the believer. The mosaic has frequently
changed its place, and has undergone so many restorations, that the
composition alone can be attributed to Giotto. The fisherman and
the figures hovering in the air are, in their present form, the
work of Marcello Provenzale."--_Kugler_, i. 127.
"This mosaic is ill placed and ill seen for an especial reason.
Early converts from paganism retained the heathen custom of turning
round to venerate the sun before entering a church, so that in the
old basilica, as here, the mosaic was thus placed to give a fitting
object of worship. The learned Cardinal Baronius never, for a
single day, during the space of thirty years, failed to bow before
this symbol of the primitive Church, tossed on the stormy sea of
persecution and of sin, saying, 'Lord, save me from the waves of
sin as thou didst Peter from the waves of the sea.' "--_Mrs.
Elliot's Historical Pictures._
The magnificent central door of bronze is a remnant from the old
basilica, and was made in the time of Eugenius IV., 1431--39, by Antonio
Filarete, and Simone, brother of Donatello. The bas-reliefs of the
compartments represent the martyrdoms of SS. Peter and Paul, and the
principal events in the reign of Eugenius,--the Council of Florence,
the Coronation of Sigismund, emperor of Germany, &c. The bas-reliefs of
the framework are entirely mythological; Ganymede, Leda and her Swan,
&c., are to be distinguished.
"Corinne fit remarquer à Lord Nelvil que sur les portes étaient
représentées en bas-relief les métamorphoses d'Ovide. On ne se
scandalise point à Rome, lui dit-elle, des images du paganisme,
quand les beaux-arts les ont consacrées. Les merveilles du génie
portent toujours à l'âme une impression religieuse, et nous faisons
hommage au culte chrétien de tous les chefs-d'œuvre que les
autres cultes ont inspirés."--_Mad. de Staël._
Let into the wall between the doors are three remarkable inscriptions:
1. Commemorating the donation made to the church by Gregory II., of
certain olive-grounds to provide oil for the lamps; 2. The bull of
Boniface VIII., 1300, granting the indulgence proclaimed at every
jubilee; 3. In the centre, the Latin epitaph of Adrian I. (Colonna,
772-95), by Charlemagne,[330] one of the most ancient memorials of the
papacy:
"The father of the Church, the ornament of Rome, the famous writer Adrian,
the blessed pope, rests in peace:
God was his life, love was his law, Christ was his glory;
He was the apostolic shepherd, always ready to do that which was right.
Of noble birth, and descended from an ancient race,
He received a still greater nobility from his virtues.
The pious soul of this good shepherd was always bent
Upon ornamenting the temples consecrated to God.
He gave gifts to the churches, and sacred dogmas to the people;
And showed us all the way to heaven.
Liberal to the poor, his charity was second to none,
And he always watched over his people in prayer.
By his teachings, his treasures, and his buildings, he raised,
O illustrious Rome, thy monuments, to be the honour of the town
and of the world.
Death could not injure him, for its sting was taken away by the
death of Christ;
It opened for him the gate of the better life.
I, Charles, have written these verses, while weeping for my father;
O my father, my beloved one, how lasting is my grief for thee.
Dost thou think upon me, as I follow thee constantly in spirit;
Now reign blessed with Christ in the heavenly kingdom.
The clergy and people have loved you with a heart-love,
Thou wert truly the love of the world, O excellent priest.
O most illustrious, I unite our two names and titles,
Adrian and Charles, the king and the father.
O thou who readest these verses, say with pious heart the prayer;
O merciful God, have pity upon them both.
Sweetly slumbering, O friend, may thy earthly body rest in the grave,
And thy spirit wander in bliss with the saints of the Lord
Till the last trumpet sounds in thine ears,
Then arise with Peter to the contemplation of God.
Yes, I know that thou wilt hear the voice of the merciful judge
Bid thee to enter the paradise of thy Saviour.
Then, O great father, think upon thy son,
And ask, that with the father the son may enter into joy.
Go, blessed father, enter into the kingdom of Christ,
And thence, as an intercessor, help thy people with thy prayers.
Even so long as the sun rolls upon its fiery axis,
Shall thy glory, O heavenly father, remain in the world.
Adrian the pope, of blessed memory, reigned for three-and-twenty
years, ten months, and seventeen days, and died on the 25th of
December."
The walled-up door on the right is the _Porta Santa_, only opened for
the jubilee, which has taken place every twenty-fifth year (except 1850)
since the time of Sixtus IV. The pope himself gives the signal for the
destruction of the wall on the Christmas-eve before the sacred year.
"After preliminary prayers from Scripture singularly apt, the pope
goes down from his throne, and, armed with a silver hammer, strikes
the wall in the doorway, which, having been cut round from its
jambs and lintel, falls at once inwards, and is cleared away in a
moment by the San Pietrini. The pope, then, bare-headed and torch
in hand, first enters the door, and is followed by his cardinals
and his other attendants to the high altar, where the first vespers
of Christmas Day are chaunted as usual. The other doors of the
church are then flung open, and the great queen of churches is
filled."--_Cardinal Wiseman._
"Arrêtez-vous un moment ici, dit Corinne à Lord Nelvil, comme il
était déjà sous le portique de l'église; arrêtez-vous, avant de
soulever le rideau qui couvre la porte du temple; votre cœur ne
bat-il pas à l'approche de ce sanctuaire? Et ne ressentez-vous pas,
au moment d'entrer, tout ce que ferait éprouver l'attente d'un
évènement solennel?"--_Mad. de Staël._
We now push aside the heavy double curtain and enter the Basilica.
"Hilda had not always been adequately impressed by the grandeur of
this mighty cathedral. When she first lifted the heavy leathern
curtains, at one of the doors, a shadowy edifice in her imagination
had been dazzled out of sight by the reality."--_Hawthorne._
"The ulterior burst upon our astonished gaze, resplendent in light,
magnificence, and beauty, beyond all that imagination can conceive.
Its apparent smallness of size, however, mingled some degree of
surprise, and even disappointment, with my admiration; but as I
walked slowly up its long nave, empanelled with the rarest and
richest marbles, and adorned with every art of sculpture and taste,
and caught through the lofty arches opening views of chapels, and
tombs, and altars of surpassing splendour, I felt that it was,
indeed, unparalleled in beauty, in magnitude, and magnificence, and
one of the noblest and most wonderful of the works of
man."--_Eaton's Rome._
"St Peter's, that glorious temple--the largest and most beautiful,
it is said, in the world, produced upon me the impression rather of
a Christian pantheon, than of a Christian church. The æsthetic
intellect is edified more than the God-loving or God-seeking soul.
The exterior and interior of the building appear to me more like an
apotheosis of the popedom than a glorification of Christianity and
its doctrine. Monuments to the popes occupy too much space. One
sees all round the walls angels flying upwards with papal
portraits, sometimes merely with papal tiaras."--_Frederika
Bremer._
"L'Architecture de St. Pierre est une musique fixée."--_Madame de
Staël._
"The building of St. Peter's surpasses all powers of description.
It appears to me like some great work of nature, a forest, a mass
of rocks, or something similar; for I never can realise the idea
that it is the work of man. You strive to distinguish the ceiling
as little as the canopy of heaven. You lose your way in St.
Peter's, you take a walk in it, and ramble till you are quite
tired; when divine service is performed and chaunted there, you are
not aware of it till you come quite close. The angels in the
Baptistery are enormous giants; the doves, colossal birds of prey;
you lose all sense of measurement with the eye, or proportion; and
yet who does not feel his heart expand, when standing under the
dome, and gazing up at it."--_Mendelssohn's Letters._
"But thou, of temples old, or altars new,
Standest alone--with nothing like to thee--
Worthiest of God, the holy and the true.
Since Zion's desolation, when that He
Forsook His former city, what could be
Of earthly structures, in His honour piled,
Of a sublimer aspect? Majesty,
Power, Glory, Strength, and Beauty,--all are aisled
In this eternal ark of worship undefiled.
"Enter: its grandeur overwhelms thee not;
And why? it is not lessen'd; but thy mind,
Expanded by the genius of the spot,
Has grown colossal, and can only find
A fit abode wherein appear enshrined
Thy hopes of immortality; and thou
Shalt one day, if found worthy, so defined,
See thy God face to face, as thou dost now
His Holy of Holies, nor be blasted by His brow."
_Byron, Childe Harold._
"On pousse avec peine une grosse portière de cuir, et nous voici
dans Saint-Pierre. On ne peut qu'adorer la religion qui produit de
telles choses. Rien du monde ne peut être comparé à l'intérieur de
Saint Pierre. Après un an de séjour à Rome, j'y allais encore
passer des heures entières avec plaisir."--_Fontana, Tempio
Vaticano Illustrato._
"Tandis que, dans les églises gothiques, l'impression est de
s'agenouiller, de joindre les mains avec un sentiment d'humble
prière et de profond regret; dans Saint-Pierre au contraire, le
mouvement involontaire serait d'ouvrir les bras en signe de joie,
de relever la tête avec bonheur et épanouissement. Il semble, que
là, le péché n'accable plus; le sentiment vif du pardon par le
triomphe de la résurrection remplit seul le cœur."--_Eugénie de
la Ferronays._
"The temperature of St. Peter's seems, like the happy islands, to
experience no change. In the coldest weather it is like summer to
your feelings, and in the most oppressive heats it strikes you with
a delightful sensation of cold--a luxury not to be estimated but in
a climate such as this."--_Eaton's Rome._
On each side of the nave are four pillars with Corinthian pilasters, and
a rich entablature supporting the arches. The roof is vaulted, coffered,
and gilded. The pavement is of coloured marble, inlaid from designs of
Giacomo della Porta and Bernini. In the centre of the floor, immediately
within the chief entrance, is a round slab of porphyry, upon which the
emperors were crowned.
The enormous size of the statues and ornaments in St. Peter's do away
with the impression of its vast size, and it is only by observing the
living, moving figures, that one can form any idea of its colossal
proportions. A line in the pavement is marked with the comparative size
of the other great Christian churches. According to this the length of
St Peter's is 613½ feet; of St. Paul's, London, 520½ feet; Milan
Cathedral, 443 feet; St. Sophia, Constantinople, 360½ feet. The
height of the dome in the interior is 405 feet; on the exterior, 448
feet. The height of the baldacchino is 94½ feet.
The first impulse will be to go up to the shrine, around which a circle
of eighty-six gold lamps is always burning, and to look down into the
Confessional, where there is a beautiful kneeling statue of Pope Pius
VI. (Braschi, 1785--1800) by _Canova_. Hence one can gaze up into the
dome, with its huge letters in purple-blue mosaic upon a gold ground
(each six feet long).[331] "Tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram
ædificabo ecclesiam meam, et tibi dabo claves regni cœlorum." Above
this are four colossal mosaics of the Evangelists from designs of the
Cav. d'Arpino; the pen of St. Luke is seven feet in length.
"The cupola is glorious, viewed in its design, its altitude, or
even its decorations; viewed either as a whole or as a part, it
enchants the eye, it satisfies the taste, it expands the soul. The
very air seems to eat up all that is harsh or colossal, and leaves
us nothing but the sublime to feast on:--a sublime peculiar as the
genius of the immortal architect, and comprehensible only on the
spot."--_Forsyth._
"Ce dôme, en le considérant même d'en bas, fait éprouver une sorte
de terreur; on croit voir des abîmes suspendus sur sa
tête."--_Madame de Staël._
_The Baldacchino_, designed by Bernini in 1633, is of bronze, with gilt
ornaments, and was made chiefly with bronze taken from the roof of the
Pantheon. It covers the high altar, which is only used on the most
solemn occasions. Only the pope can celebrate mass there, or a cardinal
who is authorised by a papal brief.
"Without a sovereign priest officiating before and for his people,
St. Peter's is but a grand aggregation of splendid churches,
chapels, tombs, and works of art. With him, it becomes a whole, a
single, peerless temple, such as the world never saw before. That
central pile, with its canopy of bronze as lofty as the Farnese
Palace, with its deep-diving stairs leading to a court walled and
paved with precious stones, that yet seems only a vestibule to some
cavern or catacomb, with its simple altar that disdains ornament in
the presence of what is beyond the reach of human price,--that
which in truth forms the heart of the great body, placed just where
the heart should be, is then animated, and surrounded by living and
moving sumptuousness. The immense cupola above it, ceases to be a
dome over a sepulchre, and becomes a canopy over an altar; the
quiet tomb beneath is changed into the shrine of relics below the
place of sacrifice--the saints under the altar;--the quiet spot at
which a few devout worshippers at most times may be found, bowing
under the hundred lamps, is crowded by rising groups, beginning
from the lowest step, increasing in dignity and in richness of
sacred robes, till, at the summit and in the centre, stands supreme
the pontiff himself, on the very spot which becomes him, the one
living link in a chain, the first ring of which is rivetted to the
shrine of the Apostles below.... St. Peter's is only itself when
the pope is at the high altar, and hence only by, or for, him it is
used."--_Cardinal Wiseman._
The four huge piers which support the dome are used as shrines for the
four great relics of the church, viz., 1. The lance of S. Longinus, the
soldier who pierced the side of our Saviour, presented to Innocent
VIII., by Pierre d'Aubusson, grandmaster of the Knights of Rhodes, who
had received it from the Sultan Bajazet;[332] 2. The head of St. Andrew,
said to have been brought from Achaia in 1460, when its arrival was
celebrated by Pius II.; 3. A portion of the true cross, brought by Sta.
Helena; 4. The napkin of Sta. Veronica, said, doubtless from the
affinity of names, to bear the impression--vera-icon--of our Saviour's
face.
"The 'Volto-Santo,' said to be the impress of the countenance of
our Saviour on the handkerchief of Sta. Veronica, or Berenice,
which wiped his brow on the way to Calvary, was placed in the
Vatican by John VII., in 707, and afterwards transferred to the
Church of Santo Spirito, where six Roman noblemen had the care of
it, each taking charge of one of the keys with which it was locked
up. Among the privileges enjoyed for this office, was that of
receiving, every year, from the hospital of Santo Spirito at the
feast of Pentecost, two cows, whose flesh, an ancient chronicle
says, 'si mangiavano lì, con gran festa.' In 1440, this picture was
carried back to St. Peter's, whence it has not since been moved.
When I examined the head on the Veronica handkerchief, it struck me
as undoubtedly a work of early Byzantine art, perhaps of the
seventh or eighth century, painted on linen. It is with implicit
acceptance of its claims that Petrarch alludes to it--'verendam
populis Salvatoris Imaginem.' Ep. ix., lib. 2. During the
republican domination in 1849, it was rumoured that about Easter,
the canons of St. Peter saw the Volto-Santo turn pale, and
ominously change colour while they gazed upon it."--_Hemans'
Catholic Italy_, vol. i.
The ceremony of exhibiting the relics from the balcony above the statue
of Sta. Veronica takes place on Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter
Day, but the height is so great that nothing can really be
distinguished.
"To-day we gazed on the Veronica--the holy impression left by our
Saviour's face on the cloth Sta. Veronica presented to him to wipe
his brow, bowed under the weight of the Cross. We had looked
forward to this sight for days, for seven thousand years of
indulgence from penance are attached to it.
"But when the moment came we could see nothing but a black board
hung with a cloth, before which another white cloth was held. In a
few minutes this was withdrawn, and the great moment was over, the
glimpse of the sacred thing on which hung the fate of seven
thousand years."--_Schönberg-Cotta Chronicles._
The niches in the piers are occupied by four statues, of Longinus, St.
Andrew, Sta. Helena, and Sta. Veronica, holding the napkin or
"sudarium," "flourishing a marble pocket-handkerchief."[333]
"Malheureusement toutes ces statues pèchent par le goût. Le rococo,
mis à la mode par le Bernin, est surtout exécrable dans le genre
colossale. Mais la présence du génie de Bramante et de Michel-Ange
se fait tellement sentir, que les choses ridicules ne le sont plus
ici; elles ne sont qu' insignifiantes. Les statues colossales des
piliers représentent: St. André, par François Quesnoy (Fiammingo),
elle excita la jalousie du Bernin; St. Veronique par M. Mochi, dont
il blamait les draperies volantes (dans un endroit clos). Un
plaisant lui répondait que leur agitation provenait du vent qui
soufflait par les crevasses de la coupole, depuis qu'il avait
affaibli les piliers par des niches et tribunes: St. Hélène par A.
Bolgi, St. Longin par Bernin."--_A. Du Pays._
Not very far from the confessional, against the last pier on the right
of the nave, stands the statue of St. Peter, said to have been cast by
Leo the Great, from the old statue of Jupiter Capitolinus. It is of very
rude workmanship. Its extended foot is eagerly kissed by Roman Catholic
devotees, who then rub their foreheads against its toes. Protestants
wonder at the feeling which this figure excites. Gregory II. wrote of it
to Leo the Isaurian: "Christ is my witness, that when I enter the temple
of the prince of the Apostles, and contemplate his image, I am filled
with such emotion, that tears roll down my cheeks like the rain from
heaven." On high festivals the statue is dressed up in full pontificals.
On the day of the jubilee of Pius IX. (June 16, 1871), it was attired in
a lace alb, stole, and gold-embroidered cope, fastened at the breast by
a clasp of diamonds; and its foot was kissed by upwards of 20,000
persons during the day.
"La coutume antique chez les Grecs d'habiller et de parer les
statues sacrées s'était conservée à Rome et s'y conserve encore.
Tout le monde a vu la statue de saint Pierre revêtir dans les
grandes solennités ses magnifiques habits de pape. On lavait les
statues des dieux, on les frottait, on les frisait comme des
poupées. Les divinités du Capitole avaient un nombreux domestique
attaché à leur personne et qui était chargé de ce soin. L'usage
romain a subsisté chez les populations latines de l'Espagne et
elles l'ont porté jusqu'au Mexique où j'ai vu, à Puebla, la veille
d'une fête, une femme de chambre faire une toilette en règle à une
statue de la Vierge."--_Ampère, Hist. Rom._ iv. 91.
Along the piers of the nave and transepts are ranged statues of the
different Founders, male and female, of religious Orders.
Returning to the main entrance, we will now make the tour of the
basilica. Those who expect to find monuments of great historical
interest will, however, be totally disappointed. Scarcely anything
remains above-ground which is earlier than the sixteenth century. Of the
tombs of the eighty-seven popes who were buried in the old basilica, the
greater part were totally lost at its destruction,--a few were removed
to other churches (those of the Piccolomini to S. Andrea della Valle,
&c.), and some fragments are still to be seen in the crypt. Only two
monuments were replaced in the new basilica, those of the two popes who
lived in the time and excited the indignation of Savonarola--"Sixtus
IV., with whose cordial concurrence the assassination of Lorenzo di
Medici was attempted--and Innocent VIII., the main object of whose
policy was to secure place and power for his illegitimate children."
"The side-chapels are splendid, and so large that they might serve
for independent churches. The monuments and statues are numerous,
but all are subordinate, or unite harmoniously with the large and
beautiful proportions of the chief temple. Everything there is
harmony, light, beauty--an image of the church-triumphant, but a
very worldly, earthly image; and whilst the mind enjoys its
splendour, the soul cannot, in the higher sense, be edified by its
symbolism."--_Frederika Bremer._
The first chapel on the right derives its name from the _Pietà of
Michael Angelo_, representing the dead Saviour upon the knees of the
Madonna, a work of the great artist in his twenty-fourth year, upon an
order from the French ambassador, Cardinal Jean de Villiers, abbot of
St. Denis. The sculptor has inscribed his name (the only instance in
which he has done so) upon the girdle of the Virgin. Francis I.
attempted to obtain this group from Michael Angelo in 1507, together
with the statue of Christ at the Minerva, "comme de choses que l'on m'a
assuré estre des plus exquises et excellentes en votre art." Opening
from this chapel are two smaller ones. That on the right has a Crucifix
by _Pietro Cavallini_; the mosaic, representing St. Nicholas of Bari, is
by _Christofari_. That on the left is called _Cappella della Colonna
Santa_, from a column, said to have been brought from Jerusalem, and to
have been that against which our Saviour leant, when he prayed and
taught in the temple. It is inscribed:
"Hæc est illa columna in qua DNS Nr Jesus XPS appodiatus dum
populo prædicabat et Deo p[=n]o preces in templo effundebat
adhærendo, stabatque una cum aliis undeci hic circumstantibus de
Salomonis templo in triumphum. Hujus Basilicæ hic locata fuit
demones expellit et immundis spiritibus vexatos liberos reddit et
multa miracula cotidie facit. P. reverendissimum pre[=m] et Dominum
Dominus. Card. de Ursinis. A.D. MDCCCXXXVIII."
A more interesting object in this chapel is the sarcophagus (once used
as a font) of Anicius Probus, a prefect of Rome in the fourth century,
of the great family of the Anicii, to which St. Gregory the Great
belonged. Its five compartments have bas-reliefs, representing Christ
and the Apostles.
Returning to the aisle, on the right, is the tomb of Leo XII., Annibale
della Genga (1823--29) by _Fabris_; on the left is the tomb of Christina
of Sweden, daughter of Gustavus Adolphus, who died at Rome, 1689, by
_Carlo Fontana_, with a bas-relief by Teudon, representing her
abjuration of Protestantism in 1655, in the cathedral of Innspruck.
On the right is the altar of St. Sebastian, with a mosaic copy of
Domenichino's picture at Sta. Maria degli Angeli; beyond which is the
tomb of Innocent XII., Antonio Pignatelli (1691--1700). This was the
last pope who wore the martial beard and moustache, which we see
represented in his statue. Pignatella is Italian for a little cream-jug;
in allusion to this we may see three little cream-jugs in the upper
decorations of this monument, which is by _Filippo Valle_. On the left
is the tomb, by _Bernini_, of the Countess Matilda, foundress of the
temporal power of the popes, who died in 1115, was buried in a monastery
near Mantua, and transported hither by Urban VIII. in 1635. The
bas-relief represents the absolution of Henry IV. of Germany, by
Hildebrand, which took place at her intercession and in her presence.
We now reach, on the right, the large _Chapel of the Santissimo
Sacramento_, decorated with a fresco altar-piece, representing the
Trinity, by _Pietro da Cortona_, and a tabernacle of lapis-lazuli and
gilt bronze, copied from Bramante's little temple at S. Pietro in
Montorio. Here is the magnificent tomb of Sixtus IV., Francesco della
Rovere (1471--81), removed from the choir of the old St. Peter's, where
it was erected by his nephew, Cardinal Giulio della Rovere, afterwards
Pope Julius II. This pope's reign was entirely occupied with politics,
and he was secretly involved in the conspiracy of the Pazzi at Florence;
he was the first pope who carried nepotism to such an extent as to found
a principality (Imola and Forli) for his nephew Girolamo Riario. The
tomb is a beautiful work of the Florentine artist, _Antonio Pollajuola_,
in 1493. The figure of the pope reposes upon a bronze couch, surrounded,
in memory of his having taught successively in the six great
universities of Italy, with allegorical bas-reliefs of Arithmetic,
Astrology, Philology, Rhetoric, Grammar, Perspective, Music, Geography,
Philosophy, and Theology, which last is represented like a pagan Diana,
with a quiver of arrows on her shoulders. Close to this monument of his
uncle, a flat stone in the pavement marks the grave of Julius II., for
whom the grand tomb at S. Pietro in Vincoli was intended.
Returning to the aisle, we see on the right the tomb of Gregory XIII.,
Ugo Buoncompagni (1572--85), during whose reign the new calendar was
invented, an event commemorated in a bas-relief upon the monument,
which was not erected till 1723, and is by _Camillo Rusconi_. The figure
of the pope (he died aged eighty-four) is in the attitude of
benediction: beneath are Wisdom, represented as Minerva, and Faith,
holding a tablet inscribed, "Novi opera hujus et fidem." Opposite this
is the paltry tomb of Gregory XIV., Nicolo Sfrondati (1590--91).
"Le tombeau de Gregoire XIII., que le massacre de Saint Barthélemy
réjouit si fort, est de marbre. Le tombeau de stuc ou d'abord il
avait été placé, a été accordé, après son départ, au cendres de
Grégoire XIV."--_Stendhal._
On the left, against the great pier, is a mosaic copy of Domenichino's
Communion of St. Jerome. On the right is the chapel of the Madonna,
founded by Gregory XIII., and built by Giacomo della Porta. The cupola
has mosaics by Girolamo Muziano. Beneath the altar is buried St. Gregory
Nazianzen, removed hither from the convent of Sta. Maria in the Campo
Marzo by Gregory XIII.
St. Gregory Nazianzen (or St. Gregory Theologos) was son of St.
Gregory and St. Nonna, and brother of St. Gorgonia and St. Cesarea.
He was born _c._ A.D. 328. In his childhood he was influenced by a
vision of the two virgins, Temperance and Chastity, summoning him
to pursue them to the joys of Paradise. Being educated at Athens
(together with Julian the Apostate), he formed there a great
friendship with St. Basil. He became first the coadjutor,
afterwards the successor, of his father, in the bishopric of
Nazianzen, but removed thence to Constantinople, where he preached
against the Arians. By the influence of Theodosius, he was ordained
Bishop of Constantinople, but was so worn out by the cabals and
schisms in the Church, that he resigned his office, and retired to
his paternal estate, where he passed the remainder of his life in
the composition of Greek hymns and poems. He died May 9, A.D. 390.
On the right is the tomb of Benedict XIV., Prospero Lambertini
(1740--58), by _Pietro Bracci_, a huge and ugly monument. On the left
is the tomb of Gregory XVI., Mauro-Cappellari (1831--46), by _Amici_,
erected in 1855 by the cardinals he had created.
Turning into the right transept, used as a council-chamber (for which
purpose it proved thoroughly unsatisfactory), 1869--70, we find several
fine mosaics from pictures, viz.: The Martyrdom of SS. Processus and
Martinianus from the Valentin at the Vatican; the Martyrdom of St.
Erasmus from Poussin; St. Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, from Caroselli;
Our Saviour walking on the sea to the boat of St. Peter, from Lanfranco.
Opposite to the last-named mosaic is the famous monument of Clement
XIII., Carlo Rezzonico (1758--69), in whose reign the Order of Jesuits
was attacked by all the sovereigns of the house of Bourbon, and expelled
from Portugal, France, Spain, Naples, and Parma. The pope, who had long
defended them, was about to yield to the pressure put upon him and had
called a consistory for their suppression, but died suddenly on the
evening before its assembling. This tomb, the greatest work of Canova,
was uncovered April 4, 1795, in the presence of an immense crowd, with
whom the sculptor mingled, disguised as an abbé, to hear their opinion.
The pope (aged 75) is represented in prayer, upon a pedestal, beneath
which is the entrance to a vault, guarded by two grand marble lions. On
the right is Religion, standing erect with a cross; on the left the
Genius of Death, holding a torch reversed. The beauty of this work of
Canova is only felt when it is compared with the monuments of the
seventeenth century in St. Peter's; "then it seems as if they were
separated by an abyss of centuries."[334]
Beyond this are mosaics from the St. Michael of Guido at the Cappuccini,
and from the Martyrdom of St. Petronilla, of Guercino, at the Capitol.
Each of these large mosaics has cost about 150,000 francs.
Now, on the right, is the tomb of Clement X., Gio. Baptista Altieri
(1670--76), by _Rossi_, the statue by _Ercole Ferrata_; and on the left,
is a mosaic of St. Peter raising Tabitha from the dead, by Costanzi.
Ascending into the tribune, we see at the end of the church, beneath the
very ugly window of yellow glass, the "Cathedra Petri" of _Bernini_,
supported by figures of the four Fathers of the Church, Augustine,
Ambrose, Chrysostom, and Athanasius. Enclosed in this, is a very ancient
wooden senatorial chair, encrusted with ivory, which is believed to have
been the episcopal throne of St. Peter and his immediate successors.
Late Roman Catholic authorities (Mgr. Gerbet, &c.) consider that it may
perhaps have been originally the chair of the senator Pudens, with whom
the apostle lodged. A magnificent festival in honour of St. Peter's
chair (Natale Petri de Cathedra) has been annually celebrated here from
the earliest times, and is mentioned in a calendar of Pope Liberius of
A.D. 354. It was said that if any pope were to reign longer than the
traditional years of the government of St. Peter (Pius IX. is the first
pope who has done so), St. Peter's chair would be again brought into
use.
On the right of the chair is the tomb of Urban VIII., Matteo Barberini
(1623--44), who was chiefly remarkable from his passion for building,
and who is perpetually brought to mind through the immense number of his
erections which still exist. The tomb is by _Bernini_, the architect of
his endless fountains and public buildings, and has the usual fault of
this sculptor in overloading his figures (except in that of Urban
himself, which is very fine,[335]) with meaningless drapery. Figures of
Charity and Justice stand by the black marble sarcophagus of the pope,
and a gilt skeleton is occupied in inscribing the name of Urban on the
list of Death. The whole monument is alive with the bees of the
Barberini. The pendant tomb on the left is that of Paul III., Alessandro
Farnese (1534--50), in whose reign the Order of the Jesuits was founded.
This pope (the first Roman who had occupied the throne for 103
years--since Martin V.) was learned, brilliant, and witty. He was adored
by his people, in spite of his intense nepotism, which induced him to
form Parma into a duchy for his natural son Pierluigi, to build the
Farnese Palace, and to marry his grandson Ottavio to Marguerite, natural
daughter of Charles V., to whom he gave the Palazzo Madama and the Villa
Madama as a dowry. His tomb, by _Guglielmo della Porta_, perhaps the
finest in St. Peter's, cost 24,000 Roman crowns; it was erected in the
old basilica just before its destruction in 1562,--and in 1574 was
transferred to this church, where its position was the source of a
quarrel between the sculptor and Michael Angelo, by whose interest he
had obtained his commission.[336] It was first placed on the site where
the Veronica now stands, whence it was moved to its present position in
1629. The figure of the pope is in bronze. In its former place four
marble statues adorned the pedestal; two are now removed to the Farnese
Palace; those which remain, of Prudence and Justice, were once entirely
nude, but were draped by Bernini. The statue of Prudence is said to
represent Giovanna Gaetani da Sermoneta, the mother of the pope, and
that of Justice his famous sister-in-law, Giulia.
"On a dit de ces figures que c'était le Rubens en sculpture."--_A.
Du Pays._
Near the steps of the tribune are two marble slabs, on which Pius IX.
has immortalised the names of the cardinals and bishops who, on December
8, 1854, accepted, on this spot, his dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
Turning towards the left transept;--on the left is a mosaic of St. Peter
healing the lame man, from _Mancini_. On the right is the tomb of
Alexander VIII., Pietro Ottobuoni (1689--91), by _Giuseppe Verlosi_ and
_Angelo Rossi_, gorgeous in its richness of bronze, marbles, and
alabasters. Beyond this is the altar of Leo the Great, over which is a
huge bas-relief, by _Algardi_, representing S. Leo calling down the
assistance of SS. Peter and Paul against the invasion of Attila.
"The king of the Huns, terrified by the apparition of the two
apostles in the air, turns his back and flies. We have here a
picture in marble, with all the faults of taste and style which
prevailed at that time, but the workmanship is excellent; it is,
perhaps, the largest bas-relief in existence, excepting the rock
sculpture of the Indians and Egyptians--at least fifteen feet in
height."--_Jameson's Sacred Art_, p. 685.
Next to this is the Cappella della Colonna, possessing a much revered
Madonna from a pillar of the old basilica, and beneath it an ancient
Christian sarcophagus containing the remains of Leo II. (ob. 683), Leo
III. (ob. 816), and Leo IV. (ob. 855). In the pavement near these two
altars is the slab tomb of Leo XII. (ob. 1828), with an epitaph
illustrating Invocation of Saints, but touching in its humility.
"Commending myself, a suppliant, to my great celestial patron Leo,
I, Leo XII., his humble client, unworthy of so great a name, have
chosen a place of sepulture, near his holy ashes."
Over the door known as the Porta Sta. Marta (from the church in the
square behind St. Peter's, to which it leads), is the tomb of Alexander
VII., Fabio Chigi (1655--67), the last work of _Bernini_, who had built
for this pope the Scala-Regia and the Colonnade of St. Peter's. This is,
perhaps, the worst of all the papal monuments--a hideous figure of Death
is pushing aside an alabaster curtain and exhibiting his hour-glass to
the kneeling pope.
Opposite to this tomb is an oil painting on slate, by _Francesco Vanni_,
of the Fall of Simon Magus. The south transept has a series of mosaic
pictures; The Incredulity of St. Thomas from Camuccini, the Crucifixion
of St. Peter and a St. Francis from Guido, and, on the pier of the
Cupola, Ananias and Sapphira from the Roncalli at Sta. Maria degli
Angeli, and the Transfiguration from Raphael.[337]
Opposite the mosaic of Ananias and Sapphira is the last tomb erected in
St. Peter's, that of Pius VIII., Francesco Castiglione (1829--31), by
_Tenerani_. It represents the pope kneeling, and above him the Saviour
in benediction, with SS. Peter and Paul. It is of no great merit.
The Cappella Clementina has the Miracle of St. Gregory the Great from
the Andrea Sacchi at the Vatican. Close to this is the fine tomb of Pius
VII., Gregorio Chiaramonte (1800--23), who crowned Napoleon,--who
suffered exile for seven years for refusing to abdicate the temporal
power,--and who returned in triumph to die at the Quirinal, after having
re-established the Order of the Jesuits. His monument is the work of
_Thorwaldsen_, graceful and simple, though perhaps too small to be in
proportion to the neighbouring tombs. The figure of the pope, a gentle
old man (he died at the age of eighty-one, having reigned twenty-three
years), is seated in a chair; figures of Courage and Faith adorn the
pedestal. The tomb was erected by Cardinal Gonsalvi, the faithful friend
and minister of this pope (who died very poor, having spent all his
wealth in charity), at an expense of 27,000 scudi.
Turning into the left aisle,--on the right is the tomb of Leo XI.,
Alessandro de Medici (1605), to which one is inclined to grudge so much
space, considering that the pope it commemorates only reigned twenty-six
days. The tomb, in allusion to this short life, is sculptured with
flowers, and bears the motto, _Sic Florui_. It is the work of _Algardi_.
The figures of Wisdom and Abundance, which adorn the pedestal, are fine
specimens of this allegorical type.
Opposite, is the tomb of Innocent XI., Benedetto Odescalchi (1676--89),
by _Etienne Monot_, with a bas-relief representing the raising of the
siege of Vienna by King John Sobieski.
Near this, is the entrance to the Cappella del Coro, the very
inconvenient chapel (decorated with gilding and stucco by Giacomo della
Porta), in which the vesper services are held. The altar-piece is a
mosaic copy of the Conception by Pietro Bianchi at the Angeli. In the
pavement is the gravestone of Clement XI., Giov. Francesco Albani
(1700--21).
Under the next arch of the aisle, on the left, is the interesting tomb
of Innocent VIII., Gio. Battista Cibò (1484--92), by Pietro and Antonio
Pollajuolo. The pope is represented asleep upon his sarcophagus, and a
second time above, seated on a throne, his right hand extended in
benediction, and his left holding the sacred lance of Longinus (said to
have been that which pierced the side of our Saviour), sent to him by
the sultan Bajazet. It is supposed that it was owing to the
representation of this relic, that this tomb alone (except that of
Sixtus IV., uncle of the destroyer), was replaced after the destruction
of the old basilica. Upon the sarcophagus of the pope is inscribed, in
allusion to the name of Innocent, the 11th verse of the 26th Psalm, "In
innocentiâ meâ ingressus sum, redime me Domine et miserere mei."
Opposite, is a tomb which is a kind of Memento Mori to the living pope,
which always bears the name of his predecessor, and in which his corpse
will be deposited, till his real tomb is prepared. "This tomb is now
empty, and awaits its prey, Pius IX."[338]
Passing the Cappella della Presentazione, which contains a mosaic from
the "Presentation of the Virgin," by _Romanelli_, we reach the last
arch, which contains the tombs of the Stuarts. On the right is the
monument, by _Filippo Barigioni_, of Maria Clementina Sobieski, wife of
James III., called in the inscription "Queen of Great Britain, France,
and Ireland"; on the left is that by Canova to the three Stuart princes,
James III. and his sons, Charles Edward, and Henry--Cardinal York. It
bears this inscription:
"JACOBO III.
JACOBI II., MAGNÆ BRIT. REGIS FILIO
KAROLO EDOARDO
ET HENRICO, DECANO PATRUM
CARDINALIUM,
JACOBI III. FILIIS,
REGLÆ STIRPIS STVARDIÆ POSTREMIS
ANNO MDCCCXIX
BEATI MORTUI QUI IN DOMINO MORIUNTUR."
"George IV., fidèle à sa réputation du _gentleman_ le plus accompli
des trois royaumes, a voulu honorer la cendre des princes
malheureux que de leur vivant il eût envoyés à l'échafaud s'ils
fussent tombés en son pouvoir."--_Stendhal._
"Beneath the unrivalled dome of St. Peter's, lie mouldering the
remains of what was once a brave and gallant heart; and a stately
monument from the chisel of Canova, and at the charge, as I
believe, of the house of Hanover, has since arisen to the memory of
_James the Third, Charles the Third, and Henry the Ninth, Kings of
England_,--names which an Englishman can scarcely read without a
smile or a sigh! Often at the present day does the British
traveller turn from the sunny crest of the Pincian, or the carnival
throng of the Corso, to gaze, in thoughtful silence, on that
mockery of human greatness, and that last record of ruined hopes!
The tomb before him is of a race justly expelled; the magnificent
temple that enshrines it is of a faith wisely reformed; yet who at
such a moment would harshly remember the errors of either, and
might not join in the prayer even of that erring Church for the
departed, 'Requiescant in pace.'"--_Lord Mahon._
The last chapel is the Baptistery, and contains, as a font, the ancient
porphyry cover of the sarcophagus of Hadrian, which was afterwards used
for the tomb of the Emperor Otho II. The mosaic of the Baptism of our
Saviour is from Carlo Maratta.
Distributed around the whole basilica are confessionals for every
Christian tongue.
"Au milieu de toutes les créations hardies et splendides de l'art
dans le basilique de St. Pierre, il est une impression morale qui
saisit l'esprit, à la vue des confessionaux des diverses langues.
Il y a là encore une autre espèce de grandeur."--_A. Du Pays._
_The Crypt of St. Peter's_ can always be visited by gentlemen, on
application in the sacristy; but by ladies only with a special
permission. The entrance is near the statue of Sta. Veronica. The
visitor is terribly hurried in his inspection of this, the most
historically interesting part of the basilica, and the works of art it
contains are so ill-arranged, as to be difficult to investigate or
remember. The crypt is divided into two portions, the _Grotte Nuove_,
occupying the area beneath the dome, and opening into some ancient
lateral chapels,--and the _Grotte Vecchie_, which extended under the
whole nave of the old basilica, and reaches as far as the Cappella del
Coro of the present edifice.
The first portion entered is a corridor in the Grotte Nuove. Hence open,
on the right, two ancient chapels. The first, _Sta. Maria in Portico_,
derives its name from a picture of the Virgin, attributed to _Simone
Memmi_, which stood in the portico of the old basilica; it contains,
besides several statues from the magnificent monument of Nicholas V.,
which perished with the old church, a statue of St. Peter which stood in
the portico, and the cross which crowned its summit. The second chapel,
_Sta. Maria delle Partorienti_, has a mosaic of our Saviour in
benediction, from the tomb of Otho II.; a mosaic of the Virgin, of the
eighth century; several ancient inscriptions; and, at the entrance,
statues of the two apostles James, from the tomb of Nicholas V. Behind
this chapel were preserved the remains of Leo II., III., and IX., till
they were removed to the upper church by Leo XII.
Entering the _Grotte Vecchie_, we find a nave and aisles separated by
pilasters with low arches. Following the south aisle we are first
arrested by the marble inscription relating to the donation of lands
made by the Countess Matilda to the church in 1102. Near this is the
small _Cappella del Salvatore_, containing a bas-relief of the Virgin
and Child by _Arnolfo_, which once decorated the tomb of Boniface
VIII.,--and the grave of Charlotte, Queen of Cyprus, who died in 1487.
Near this are the sepulchral urns of the three Stuart princes,
commemorated in the upper church. At the end of this aisle is the tomb
of the Emperor Otho II., who died at Rome in A.D. 983; this formerly
stood in the portico of the basilica.
Here is the empty tomb of Alexander VI., Rodrigo Borgia (1492--1503),
the wicked and avaricious father of Cæsar and Lucretia, who is believed
to have died of the poison which he intended for one of his cardinals.
The body of this pope was not allowed to rest in peace. Julius II., the
bitter enemy of the Borgias, turned it out of its tomb, and had it
carried to S. Giacomo degli Spagnuoli, whence, when that church was
pulled down, it was taken to Sta. Maria di Monserrato. The empty
sarcophagus is surmounted by the figure of Alexander, who was himself a
handsome old man, and in whose features may be traced the lineaments of
the splendid Cæsar Borgia, known to us from the picture in the Borghese
Palace.
At the end of the central nave is the sarcophagus of Christina of
Sweden, who has a monument in the upper church.
The first tomb in the south aisle, beginning from the west, is that of
Boniface VIII., Benedetto Gaetani (1294--1303).
"The last prince of the Church, who understood the papacy in the
sense of universal dominion, in the spirit of Gregory VII., of
Alexander and Innocent III. Two kings held the bridle of his
palfrey as he rode from St Peter's to the Lateran after his
election. He received Dante as the ambassador of Florence; in 1300
he instituted the jubilee; and his reign--filled with contests with
Philip le Bel of France and the Colonnas--ended in his being taken
prisoner in his palace at Anagni by Sciarra Colonna and William of
Nogaret, and subjected to the most cruel indignities. He was
rescued by his fellow-citizens and conducted to Rome by the Orsini,
but he died thirty seven days after of grief and mortification. The
Ghibelline story relates that he sate alone silently gnawing the
top of his staff, and at length dashed out his brains against the
wall, or smothered himself with his own pillows. But the
contemporary verse of the Cardinal St. George describes him as
dying quietly in the midst of his cardinals, at peace with the
world, and having received all the consolations of the
Church."--_See Milman's Latin Christianity_, vol. V.
The character of Boniface has ever been one of the battlefields of
history. He was scarcely dead when the epitaph, "He came in like a fox,
he ruled like a lion, he died like a dog," was proclaimed to
Christendom. He was consigned by Dante to the lowest circle of Hell; yet
even Dante expressed the universal shock with which Christendom beheld
"the Fleur de lis enter Anagni, and Christ again captive in his
Vicar,--the mockery, the gall and vinegar, the crucifixion between
living robbers, the cruelty of the second Pilate." In later times,
Tosti, Drumann, and lastly, Cardinal Wiseman, have engaged in his
defence.
Boniface VIII. was buried with the utmost magnificence in a splendid
chapel, which he had built himself, and adorned with mosaics, and where
a grand tomb was erected to him. Of this nothing remains now, but the
sarcophagus, which bears a majestic figure of the pope by _Arnolfo del
Cambio_.
"The head is unusually beautiful, severe and noble in its form, and
corresponds perfectly with the portrait which we have (at the
Lateran) from the hand of Giotto, which represents his face as
beardless and of the most perfect oval. His head is covered by a
long, pointed mitre, like a sugar-loaf, decked with two crowns.
This proud man was indeed the first who wore the double crown,--all
his predecessors having been content with a simple crowned mitre.
This new custom existed till the tune of Urban V., by whom the
third crown was added."--_Gregorovius, Grabmäler der Päpste._
Close to that of Boniface are the sarcophagi of Pius II., Æneas Sylvius
Piccolomini (1458--64) and Pius III., Antonio Todeschini Piccolomini
(1503), whose monuments are removed to S. Andrea della Valle.
Next beyond Boniface is the tomb of Adrian IV. (Nicholas Breakspeare,
1154--59), the only Englishman who ever occupied the papal throne.[339]
He is buried in a pagan sarcophagus of red granite, adorned with Medusa
heads in relief, and without any inscription.
Opposite this, is a sarcophagus bearing the figure of Nicholas V.,
Tomaso di Sarzana(1447--55), being nearly all that has been preserved of
the glorious tomb of that pope, who founded the Vatican library,
collected around him a court of savants and poets, and "with whom opened
the age of papacy to which belonged the times of Julius II. and Leo X."
His epitaph, attributed to Pius II., is by his secretary Mafeo Vegio.
"The bones of Nicholas V. rest in this grave,
Who gave to thee, O Rome! thy golden age.
Famous in council, more famous in shining virtue,
He honoured wise men, who was himself the wisest of all.
He gave healing to the world, long wounded with schism,
And renewed at once its manners and customs, and the buildings
and temples of the city.
He gave an altar to St. Bernardino of Siena
When he celebrated the holy year of jubilee.
He crowned with gold the forehead of Frederick and his wife,
And gave order to the affairs of Italy by the treaty which he made.
He translated many Greek writings into the Latin tongue;--
Then offer incense to-day at his holy grave."
Next comes a remnant of the tomb of Paul II., Pietro Barbo (1464--71),
chiefly remarkable for his personal beauty, of which he was so vain,
that when he issued from the conclave as pope, he wished to take the
name of Formosus. This pontiff built the Palazzo S. Marco, and gave a
name to the Corso, by establishing the races there. He also prepared for
himself one of the most splendid tombs in the old basilica, for which he
obtained Mino da Fiesole as an architect It was his wish to lie in the
porphyry sarcophagus of Sta. Costanza, which he stole from her church
for this purpose; hence the simplicity of the existing sarcophagus,
which bears his effigy. Beyond this, are sarcophagi of Julius III., Gio.
Maria Ciocchi del Monte (1550--55), builder of the Villa Papa Giulio;
and Nicholas III., Orsini (1277--81), who made a treaty with Rudolph of
Hapsburg, and obtained from him a ratification of the donation of the
Countess Matilda. Then comes the sarcophagus of Urban VI., Bartolomeo
Prignani (1378--87), the sole relic of a most magnificent tomb of this
cruel pope, who is believed to have died of poison. It bears his figure,
and in the front, a bas-relief of him receiving the keys from St. Peter.
His epitaph runs:
"Here rests the just, wise, and noble prince,
Urban VI., a native of Naples.
He, full of zeal, gave a safe refuge to the teachers of the faith.
That gained for him, noble one, a fatal poison cup at the close
of the repast.
Great was the schism, but great was his courage in opposing it,
And in the presence of this mighty pope Simony sate dumb.
But it is needless to reiterate his praises upon earth,
While heaven is shining with his immortal glory."
"Sepelitur in beati Petri Basilica, paucis admodum ejus mortem,
utpote hominis rustici et inexorabilis, flentibus. Hujus autem
sepulchrum adhuc visitur cum epitaphio satis rustico et
inepto."--_Platina._
Next come the sarcophagi of Innocent VII., Cosmato de Miliorati
(1404--6), bearing his figure; of Marcellus II., Marcello Cervini
(1555), who only reigned twenty-five days; and of Innocent IX., Giov.
Antonio Facchinetti (1591--92), who reigned only sixty.
Near these is the urn of Agnese Gaetani Colonna, the only lady not of
royal birth buried in the basilica.
Hence we return to the corridor of the Grotte Nuove, containing a number
of mosaics and statues detached from different papal tombs, the best
being those from that of Nicholas V. and that of Paul II., by _Mino da
Fiesole_ (a figure of Charity is especially beautiful), and a bas-relief
of the Virgin and Child, by _Arnolfo_, from the tomb of Benedict VIII.
Here also are a half-length statue of Boniface VIII., ascribed to
_Andrea Pisano_; a half-length of Benedict XII., by _Paolo di Siena_;
and a figure of St. Peter seated on a gothic throne which once supported
a statue of Benedict XII.
The _Chapel of St. Longinus_ has a mosaic from a picture by Andrea
Sacchi. Near the entrance of the shrine are marble reliefs of the
martyrdoms of St. Peter and St. Paul. Opposite to the entrance of the
shrine is the magnificent sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, Christian
prefect of Rome, who died A.D. 359. It was discovered near its present
site in 1595. It is adorned with admirable sculptures from the Old and
New Testament.
Opening from the centre of the circular passage is the _Confession or
Shrine of SS. Peter and Paul_, which contains the sarcophagus brought
from the Catacomb near S. Sebastiano in 257, and which the Roman
Catholic Church has always revered as that of St. Peter. On the altar,
consecrated in 1122, are two ancient pictures of St. Peter and St.
Paul. Only half the bodies of the saints are held to be preserved here,
the other portion of that of St. Peter being at the Lateran, and of St.
Paul at S. Paolo fuori Mura.
To the Roman Catholic mind this is naturally one of the most sacred
spots in the world, since it holds literally the words of St. Ambrose,
that: "Where Peter is, there is the Church,--and where the Church is,
there is no death, but life eternal."[340]
"From this place Peter, from this place Paul, shall be caught up in
the resurrection. Oh consider with trembling that which Rome will
behold, when Paul suddenly rises with Peter from this sepulchre,
and is carried up into the air to meet the Lord."--_St. John
Chrysostom, Homily on the Ep. to the Romans._
"Among the cemeteries ascribed by tradition to apostolic times, the
crypts of the Vatican would have the first claim on our attention,
had they not been almost destroyed by the foundations of the vast
basilica which guards the tomb of St. Peter.... The _Liber
Pontificalis_ says that Anacletus, the successor of Clement in the
Apostolic See, '_built_ and adorned the sepulchral monument
(_construxit memoriam_) of blessed Peter, since he had been
ordained priest by St. Peter, and other burial-places where the
bishops might be laid.' It is added that he himself was buried
there; and the same is recorded of Linus and Cletus, and of
Evaristus, Sixtus I., Telesphorus, Hyginus, Pius I., Eleutherius,
and Victor, the last of whom was buried A.D. 203; and after St.
Victor, no other pontiff is recorded to have been buried at the
Vatican until Leo the Great was laid in St. Peter's, A.D. 461. The
idea conveyed by the words _construxit memoriam_ is that of a
monument above-ground according to the usual Roman custom; and we
have seen that such a monument, even though it covered the tomb of
Christian bishops, would not be likely to be disturbed at any time
during the first or second century. For the reason we have already
stated, it is impossible to confront these ancient notices with any
existing monuments. It is worth mentioning, however, that De Rossi
believes that the sepulchre of St. Linus was discovered in this
very place early in the seventeenth century, bearing simply the
name of Linus."--_Northcote and Brownlow, Roma Setterranea._
To ascend the _Dome of St. Peter's_ requires a special order. The
entrance is from the first door in the left aisle, near the tomb of
Maria-Clementina Sobieski. The ascent is by an easy staircase _à
cordoni_, the walls of which bear memorial tablets of all the royal
personages who have ascended it. The aspect of the roof is exceedingly
curious from the number of small domes and houses of workmen with which
it is studded,--quite a little village in themselves. A chamber in one
of the pillars which support the dome contains a model of the ancient
throne of St. Peter, and a model of the church, by Michael Angelo and
his predecessor, Antonio di Sangallo. The dome is 300 feet above the
roof, and 613½ feet in circumference. An iron staircase leads thence
to the ball, which is capable of containing sixteen persons.
"Cette hauteur fait frémir," dit Beyle, "quand on songe aux
tremblements de terre qui agitent fréquemment l'Italie, et qu'un
instant peut vous priver du plus beau monument qui existe.
Certainement jamais il ne serait relevé: nous sommes trop
_raisonables_."
"De Brosse raconte que deux moines espagnoles, qui se trouvaient
dons la boule de St. Pierre lors de la secousse de 1730, eurent une
telle peur, que l'un d'eux mourut sur la place."--_A. Du Pays._
_The Sacristy of St. Peter's_, which is entered by a grey marble door on
the left, before turning into the south transept, was built by Pius VI.,
in 1755, from designs of _Carlo Marchione_. It consists of three halls,
with a corridor adorned with columns and inscriptions from the old
church, and with statues of SS. Peter and Paul, which stood in front of
it. The central hall, _Sagrestia Commune_, is adorned with eight fluted
pillars of grey marble (bigio) from Hadrian's Villa. On the left is the
_Sagrestia dei Canonici_, with the Cappella dei Canonici, which has two
pictures, the Madonna and Saints (Anna, Peter, and Paul), by _Francesco
Penni_, and the Madonna and Child, _Giulio Romano_. Hence opens the
_Stanza Capitolare_, containing an interesting remnant of the many works
of Giotto in the old basilica under Boniface VIII. (for which he
received 3020 gold florins), in three panel pictures belonging to the
ciborium for the high altar ordered by Cardinal Stefaneschi, and
representing,--Christ with that Cardinal,--the Crucifixion of St.
Peter,--the Execution of St. Peter,--and on the back of the same panel,
another picture, in which Cardinal Stefaneschi is offering his ciborium
to St. Peter.
"The fragments which are preserved of the painting which Giotto
executed for the Church of St. Peter cannot fail to make us regret
its loss. The fragments are treated with a grandeur of style which
has led Rumohr to suspect that the susceptible imagination of
Giotto was unable to resist the impression which the ancient
mosaics of the Christian basilicas must have produced upon
him."--_Rio. Poetry of Christian Art._
Here also are several fragments of the frescoes (of angels and
apostles), by _Melozzo da Forlì_, which existed in the former dome of
the SS. Apostoli, and of which the finest portion is now at the Quirinal
Palace. On the right is the _Sagrestia dei Benefiziati_, which contains
a picture of the Saviour giving the keys to St. Peter, by _Muziano_, and
an image called La Madonna della Febbre, which stood in the old
Sacristy. Opening hence is the _Treasury of St. Peter's_, containing
some ancient jewels, crucifixes, and candelabra, by Benvenuto Cellini
and Michael Angelo, and, among other relics, the famous sacerdotal robe
called the _Dalmatica di Papa San Leone_, "said to have been embroidered
at Constantinople for the coronation of Charlemagne as Emperor of the
West, but fixed by German criticism as a production of the twelfth, or
the early part of the thirteenth century. The emperors, at least, have
worn it ever since, while serving as deacons at the pope's altar during
their coronation-mass."
"It is a large robe of stiff brocade, falling in broad and unbroken
folds in front and behind,--broad and deep enough for the
Goliath-like stature and the Herculean chest of Charlemagne
himself. On the breast the Saviour is represented in glory, on the
back the Transfiguration, and on the two shoulders Christ
administering the Eucharist to the Apostles. In each of these last
compositions, our Saviour, a stiff but majestic figure, stands
behind the altar, on which are deposited a chalice and a paten or
basket containing crossed wafers. He gives, in the one case, the
cup to St. Paul, in the other the bread to St. Peter,--they do not
kneel, but bend reverently to receive it; five other disciples
await their turn in each instance,--all are standing.
"I do not apprehend your being disappointed with the Dalmatica di
San Leone, or your dissenting from my conclusion, that a master, a
Michael-Angelo I would almost say, then flourished at Byzantium.
"It was in this Dalmatica--then _semée_ all over with pearls and
glittering in freshness--that Cola di Rienzi robed himself over his
armour in the sacristy of St. Peter's and thence ascended to the
Palace of the Popes, after the manner of the Cæsars, with sounding
trumpets and his horsemen following him--his truncheon in his hand
and his crown on his head--'terribile e fantastico,' as his
biographer describes him--to wait upon the Legate."--_Lord
Lindsay's Christian Art_, i. 137.
Above the Sacristy are the _Archives of St. Peter's_, containing, among
many other ancient MSS., a life of St. George, with miniatures, by
_Giotto_. The entrance to the Archivio, at the end of the corridor, is
adorned with fragments of the chains of the ports of Smyrna and Tunis.
Here, also, is a statue of Pius VI., by _Agostino Penna_.
It is quite worth while to leave St. Peter's by the Porta Sta. Marta
beneath the tomb of Alexander VII., in order to examine the exterior of
the church from behind, where it completely dwarfs all the surrounding
buildings. Among these are the _Church of S. Stefano_, with a fine door
composed of antique fragments, and the dismal _Church of Sta. Marta_,
which contains several of the Roman weights known as "Pietra di
Paragone," said to have been used in the martyrdoms. Beyond the Sacristy
is the pretty little _Cimeterio dei Tedeschi_, the oldest of Christian
burial-grounds, said to have been set apart by Constantine, and filled
with earth from Calvary. It was granted to the Germans in 1779, by Pius
VI. Close by is the _Church of Sta. Maria della Pietà in Campo Santo_.
Not far from hence (in a street behind the nearest colonnade) is the
_Palazzo del Santo Uffizio--or of the Inquisition_. This body, for some
time past, suppressed everywhere except in the States of the Pope, was
established here in 1536 by Paul III., acting on the advice of Cardinal
Caraffa, afterwards Paul IV., for inquiry into cases of heresy, and the
punishment of ecclesiastical offences. It was by the authority of the
"Holy Office" that the "Index" of prohibited books was first drawn up.
Paul IV., on his deathbed, summoned the cardinals to his side, and
recommended to them this "Santissimo Tribunale," as he called it, and
succeeding popes have protected and encouraged it. The character of the
Inquisition has been much changed from that which it bore three hundred
years ago; but even in late years, many cases of extreme severity have
been reported,--especially one of a French bishop cruelly imprisoned for
sixteen years in one of its dungeons (merely because he had received his
consecration from a French constitutional prelate), and who was only
released when its doors were opened in the revolution of 1848.
"Within these walls has been confined for many years a very
extraordinary person--the archbishop of Memphis.... Pope Leo XII.
received a letter from the Pacha of Egypt informing his Holiness,
that he and a large portion of his subjects desired to be received
into the bosom of the Church of Rome; and announcing that he and
they were willing to conform, provided the pope would send out an
archbishop, with a suitable train of ecclesiastics, and requesting
that his Holiness would do him the favour of appointing a certain
young student whom he named, the first archbishop of Memphis, and
despatch him to Egypt. No doubt was entertained as to the truth of
this communication, but an objection presented itself in the youth
of the ecclesiastical student whom the Pacha wished to have as his
archbishop. The pope consulted his cardinals, who advised him not
to make the dangerous precedent of raising a novice to so high a
rank in the Church, but his Holiness, tempted by the desire of
converting a kingdom to Christianity, resolved to conform to the
wishes of the Pacha, and did consecrate the youth archbishop of
Memphis. The archbishop was sent out attended by a train of priests
to Egypt. When the ship arrived, the authorities in Egypt declared
the affair was an imposition. His Grace confessed the fraud, was
arrested, and reconducted to Rome. He was the author of the letter
which imposed on the pope--his original intention having been to
confess to the pope as a priest, after his consecration, the
imposition he had practised; and as the pope could not betray a
secret imparted to him at the confessional, the offender might have
obtained absolution, and escaped punishment. Whether this would
have been practicable I know not; but it was not accomplished, and
as the youth had the rank of archbishop indelibly imprinted on him,
nothing remained but to confine his Grace for the remainder of his
life; and accordingly he was confined to this prison near the
Vatican, whence he may find it difficult to escape."--_Whiteside's
Italy_, 1860.
The tribunal of the Inquisition was formally abolished by the Roman
Assembly in February, 1849, but was re-established by Pius IX. in the
following June. Its meetings, however, now take place in the Vatican,
and the old palace of the Holy Office was long used as a barrack for
French soldiers.
In the interior of the building is a lofty hall, with gloomy frescoes of
Dominican saints,--and many terrible dungeons and cells in which the
victim is unable to stand upright, having their vaulted ceilings lined
with reeds, to deaden sound,--but all this is seldom seen. When the
people rushed into the Inquisition at the revolution, a number of human
bones were found in these vaults, which so excited the popular fury,
that an attack on the Dominican convent at the Minerva was anticipated.
Ardent defenders of the papacy maintain that these bones had been
previously transported to the Inquisition from a cemetery, to get up a
sensation.[341]
Built up into the back of this palace is the tribune of the _Church of
S. Salvatore in Torrione or in Macello_, whose foundation is ascribed to
Charlemagne (797). Senerano (Sette Chiese) supposes that the French had
here their schola or special centre for worship and assemblage. The
windows of this building are among the few examples of gothic in Rome,
and there are good terra-cotta mouldings. It may best be seen from the
_Porta Cavalleggieri_, which was designed by Sangallo, and derives its
name from the cavalry barracks close by.
A short distance from the lower end of the Colonnade is the _Church of
S. Michaele in Sassia_, whose handsome tower is a relic of the church
founded by Leo IV., who built the walls of the Borgo, especially for
funeral masses for the souls of those who fell in its defence against
the Saracens. Raphael Mengs is buried in the modern church.
The name of this church commemorates the Saxon settlement "called Burgus
Saxonum, Vicus Saxonum, Schola Saxonum, and simply Saxia or
Sassia,"[342] founded _c._ 727 by Ina, king of Wessex, and enlarged in
794 by Offa, king of Mercia, when he made a pilgrimage to Rome in
penance for the murder of Ethelbert, king of East-Anglia. Ina founded
here a church, "Sta. Maria quæ vocatur Schola Saxorum," which is
mentioned as late as 854. Dyer (Hist. of the City of Rome) says that
"when Leo IV. enclosed this part of the city, it obtained the name of
Borgo, from the Burgus Saxonum, and one of the gates was called Saxonum
Posterula. The 'Schola Francorum' was also in the Borgo."
CHAPTER XVI.
THE VATICAN.
History of the Vatican Quarter and of the Palace--Scala
Regia--Pauline Chapel--Sistine Chapel--Sala Ducale--Court of St.
Damasus--Galleria Lapidaria--Braccio Nuovo--Museo Chiaramonti--The
Belvedere--Gallery of Statues--Hall of Busts--Sala delle Muse--Sala
Rotonda--Sala a Croce Greca--Galleria dei Candelabri--Galleria
degli Arazzi--Library--Appartamenti Borgia--Etruscan
Museum--Egyptian Museum--Gardens--Villa Pia--Loggie--Stanze--Chapel
of S. Lorenzo--Gallery of Pictures.
The hollow of the Janiculum between S. Onofrio and the Monte Mario is
believed to have been a site of Etruscan divination.
"Fauni vatesque canebant."
_Ennius._
Hence the name, which is now only used in regard to the papal palace and
the basilica of St. Peter, but which was once applied to the whole
district between the foot of the hill and the Tiber near S. Angelo.
" ... ut paterni
Fluminis ripæ, simul et jocosa
Redderet laudes tibi Vaticani
Montis imago."
_Horace_, i. _Od._ 20.
Tacitus speaks of the unwholesome air of this quarter. In this district
was the Circus of Caligula, adjoining the gardens of his mother
Agrippina, decorated by the obelisk which now stands in the front of St.
Peter's.[343] Here Seneca describes that while Caligula was walking by
torchlight, he amused himself by the slaughter of a number of
distinguished persons--senators and Roman ladies. Afterwards it became
the Circus of Nero, who from his adjoining gardens used to watch the
martyrdom of the Christians[344]--mentioned by Suetonius as "a race
given up to a new and evil superstition"--and who used their living
bodies, covered with pitch and set on fire, as torches for his nocturnal
promenades.
The first residence of the popes at the Vatican was erected by St.
Symmachus (A.D. 498--514) near the forecourt of the old St. Peter's, and
here Charlemagne is believed to have resided on the occasion of his
several visits to Rome during the reigns of Adrian I. (772--795) and Leo
III. (795--816). This ancient palace having fallen into decay during the
twelfth century, it was rebuilt in the thirteenth by Innocent III. It
was greatly enlarged by Nicholas III. (1277--1281), but the Lateran
continued to be the papal residence, and the Vatican palace was only
used on state occasions, and for the reception of any foreign sovereigns
visiting Rome. After the return of the popes from Avignon, the Lateran
palace had fallen into decay, and for the sake of the greater security
afforded by the vicinity of S. Angelo, it was determined to make the
pontifical residence at the Vatican, and the first conclave was held
there in 1378. In order to increase its security, John XXIII.
constructed the covered passage to S. Angelo in 1410. Nicholas V.
(1447--1455) had the idea of making it the most magnificent palace in
the world, and of uniting in it all the government offices and dwellings
of the cardinals, but died before he could do more than begin the work.
The building which he commenced was finished by Alexander VI., and still
exists under the name of Tor di Borgia. In 1473 Sixtus IV. built the
Sistine Chapel, and in 1490 "the Belvedere" was erected as a separate
garden-house by Innocent VIII. from designs of Antonio da Pollajuolo.
Julius II., with the aid of Bramante, united this villa to the palace by
means of one vast courtyard, and erected the Loggie around the Court of
St. Damasus; he also laid the foundation of the Vatican Museum in the
gardens of the Belvedere. The Loggie were completed by Leo X.; the Sala
Regia and the Pauline Chapel were built by Paul III. Sixtus V. divided
the great court of Bramante into two by the erection of the library, and
began the present residence of the popes, which was finished by Clement
VIII. (1592--1605). Urban VIII. built the Scala Regia; Clement XIV. and
Pius VII., the Museo Pio-Clementino; Pius VII., the Braccio Nuovo; Leo
XII., the picture-gallery; Gregory XVI., the Etruscan Museum; and Pius
IX., the handsome staircase leading to the court of Bramante.
The length of the Vatican palace is 1151 English feet; its breadth, 767.
It has eight grand staircases, twenty courts, and is said to contain
11,000 chambers of different sizes.
(The collections in the Vatican may be visited daily with an order
and at fixed hours, except on Sundays and high festivals.
Permission to make drawings must be obtained from the maggiordomo.)
* * * * *
The principal entrance of the Vatican is at the end of the right
colonnade of St. Peter's. Hence a door on the right opens upon the
staircase leading to the Cortile di S. Damaso, and is the nearest way to
the collections of statues and pictures.
Following the great corridor, and passing on the left the entrance to
the portico of St. Peter's, we reach the _Scala Regia_, a magnificent
work of Bernini, formerly guarded by the picturesque Swiss soldiers.
Hence we enter the _Sala Regia_, built in the reign of Paul III. by
Antonio di Sangallo, and used as a hall of audience for ambassadors. It
is decorated with frescoes illustrative of the history of the popes.
ENTRANCE WALL:
Alliance of the Venetians with Paul V. against the Turks, and
Battle of Lepanto, 1571: _Vasari_.
RIGHT WALL:
Absolution of the Emperor Henry IV., by Gregory VII.: _Federigo_
and _Taddeo Zucchero_.
LEFT WALL:
Massacre of St. Bartholomew: _Vasari_.
OPPOSITE WALL, towards the Sala Regia:
Return of Gregory XI. from Avignon.
Benediction of Frederick Barbarossa by Alexander III., in the
Piazza of S. Marco: _Giuseppe Porta_.
On the right is the entrance of the _Pauline Chapel_ (Cappella Paolina),
also built (1540) by Antonio di Sangallo for Paul III. Its decorations
are chiefly the work of _Sabbatini_ and _F. Zucchero_, but it contains
two frescoes by _Michael Angelo_.
"Two excellent frescoes, executed by Michael Angelo on the side
walls of the Pauline Chapel, are little cared for, and are so much
blackened by the smoke of lamps that they are seldom mentioned. The
Crucifixion of St. Peter, under the large window, is in a most
unfavourable light, but is distinguished for its grand, severe
composition. That on the opposite wall--the Conversion of St.
Paul--is still tolerably distinct. The long train of his soldiers
is seen ascending in the background. Christ, surrounded by a host
of angels, bursts upon his sight from the storm-flash. Paul lies
stretched on the ground--a noble and finely-developed form. His
followers fly on all sides, or are struck motionless by the
thunder. The arrangement of the groups is excellent, and some of
the single figures are very dignified; the composition has,
moreover, a principle of order and repose, which, in comparison
with the Last Judgment, places this picture in a very favourable
light. If there are any traces of old age to be found in these
works, they are at most discoverable in the execution of
details."--_Kugler_, p. 308.
On the left of the approach from the Scala Regia is the _Sistine Chapel_
(Cappella Sistina), built by Bacio Pintelli in 1473 for Sixtus IV. The
lower part of the walls of this wonderful chapel was formerly hung on
festivals with the tapestries executed from the cartoons of Raphael; the
upper portion is decorated in fresco by the great Florentine masters of
the fifteenth century.
"It was intended to represent scenes from the life of Moses on one
side of the chapel, and from the life of Christ on the other, so
that the old law might be confronted by the new,--the type by the
typified."--_Lanzi._
The following is the order of the frescoes, type and anti-*type
together:
Over the altar--now destroyed to make way for the Last Judgment:
1. Moses in the Bulrushes: | 1. Christ in the Manger:
_Perugino_. | _Perugino_.
(Between these was the Assumption of the Virgin, in which Pope
Sixtus IV. was introduced, kneeling: _Perugino_.)
On the left wall, still existing: | On the right wall, still existing:
|
2. Moses and Zipporah on the way | 2. The Baptism of Christ:
to Egypt, and the circumcision | _Perugino_.
of their son: _Luca Signorelli_. |
|
3. Moses killing the Egyptian, and | 3. The Temptation of Christ:
driving away the shepherds from | _Sandro Botticelli_.
the well: _Sandro Botticelli_. |
|
4. Moses and the Israelites, | 4. The calling of the Apostles
after the passage of the Red Sea: | on the Lake of Gennesareth:
_Cosimo Rosselli_. | _Domenico Ghirlandajo_.
|
5. Moses giving the Law | 5. Christ's Sermon on the
from the Mount: _Cosimo Rosselli_. | Mount: _Cosimo Rosselli_.
|
6. The punishment of Korah, | 6. The institution of the
Dathan, and Abiram, who aspired | Christian Priesthood. Christ
uncalled to the priesthood: | giving the keys to Peter:
_Sandro Botticelli_. | _Perugino_.
|
7. The last interview of Moses | 7. The Last Supper: _Cosimo_
and Joshua: _Luca Signorelli_. | _Rosselli_.
On the entrance wall:
8. Michael bears away the | 8. The Resurrection: _Domenico
body of Moses (Jude 9): | Ghirlandajo_, restored by
_Cecchino Salviati_. | _Arrigo Fiamingo_.
On the pillars between the windows are the figures of twenty-eight
popes, by _Sandro Botticelli_.
"Vasari says that the two works of Luca Signorelli surpass in
beauty all those which surround them,--an assertion which is at
least questionable as far as regards the frescoes of Perugino; but
with respect to all the rest, the superiority of Signorelli is
evident, even to the most inexperienced eye. The subject of the
first picture is the journey of Moses and Zipporah into Egypt: the
landscape is charming, although evidently ideal; there is great
depth in the aërial perspective; and in the various groups
scattered over the different parts of the picture there are female
forms of such beauty, that they may have afforded models to
Raphael. The same graceful treatment is also perceptible in the
representation of the death of Moses, the mournful details of
which have given scope to the poetical imagination of the artist.
The varied group to whom Moses has just read the Law for the last
time, the sorrow of Joshua, who is kneeling before the man of God,
the charming landscape, with the river Jordan threading its way
between the mountains, which are made singularly beautiful, as if
to explain the regrets of Moses when the angel announces to him
that he will not enter into the promised land--all form a series of
melancholy scenes perfectly in harmony with one another, the only
defect being that the whole is crowded into too small a
space."--_Rio. Poetry of Christian Art._
The avenue of pictures is a preparation for the surpassing grandeur of
the ceiling:
"The _ceiling_ of the Sistine Chapel contains the most perfect
works done by _Michael Angelo_ in his long and active life. Here
his great spirit appears in its noblest dignity, in its highest
purity; here the attention is not disturbed by that arbitrary
display to which his great power not unfrequently seduced him in
other works. The ceiling forms a flattened arch in its section; the
central portion, which is a plain surface, contains a series of
large and small pictures, representing the most important events
recorded in the book of Genesis--the Creation and Fall of Man, with
its immediate consequences. In the large triangular compartments at
the springing of the vault, are sitting figures of the prophets and
sibyls, as the foretellers of the coming of the Saviour. In the
soffits of the recesses between these compartments, and in the
arches underneath, immediately above the windows, are the ancestors
of the Virgin, the series leading the mind directly to the Saviour.
The external connection of these numerous representations is formed
by an architectural framework of peculiar composition, which
encloses the single subjects, tends to make the principal masses
conspicuous, and gives to the whole an appearance of that solidity
and support so necessary, but so seldom attended to, in soffit
decorations, which may be considered as if suspended. A great
number of figures are also connected with the framework; those in
unimportant situations are executed in the colour of stone or
bronze; in the more important, in natural colours. These serve to
support the architectural forms, to fill up and to connect the
whole. They may be best described as the living and embodied
_genii_ of architecture. It required the unlimited power of an
architect, sculptor, and painter, to conceive a structural whole of
so much grandeur, to design the decorative figures with the
significant repose required by the sculpturesque character, and
yet to preserve their subordination to the principal subjects, and
to keep the latter in the proportions and relations best adapted to
the space to be filled."--_Kugler_, p. 301.
The pictures from the Old Testament, beginning from the altar, are:
1. The Separation of Light and Darkness.
2. The Creation of the Sun and Moon.
3. The Creation of Trees and Plants.
4. The Creation of Adam.
5. The Creation of Eve.
6. The Fall and the Expulsion from Paradise.
7. The Sacrifice of Noah.
8. The Deluge.
9. The Intoxication of Noah.
"The scenes from Genesis are the most sublime representations of
these subjects;--the Creating Spirit is unveiled before us. The
peculiar type which the painter has here given of the form of the
Almighty Father has been frequently imitated by his followers, and
even by Raphael, but has been surpassed by none. Michael Angelo has
represented him in majestic flight, sweeping through the air,
surrounded by _genii_, partly supporting, partly borne along with
him, covered by his floating drapery; they are the distinct
syllables, the separate virtues of his creating word. In the first
(large) compartment we see him with extended hands, assigning to
the sun and moon their respective paths. In the second, he awakens
the first man to life. Adam lies stretched on the verge of the
earth, in the act of raising himself; the Creator touches him with
the point of his finger, and appears thus to endow him with feeling
and life. This picture displays a wonderful depth of thought in the
composition, and the utmost elevation and majesty in the general
treatment and execution. The third subject is not less important,
representing the Fall of Man and his Expulsion from Paradise. The
tree of knowledge stands in the midst, the serpent (the upper part
of the body being that of a woman) is twined around the stem; she
bends down towards the guilty pair, who are in the act of plucking
the forbidden fruit. The figures are nobly graceful, particularly
that of Eve. Close to the serpent hovers the angel with the sword,
ready to drive the fallen beings out of Paradise. In this double
action, this union of two separate moments, there is something
peculiarly poetic and significant: it is guilt and punishment in
one picture. The sudden and lightning-like appearance of the
avenging angel behind the demon of darkness has a most impressive
effect."--_Kugler_, p. 304.
"It was the seed of Eve that was to bruise the serpent's head.
Hence it is that Michael Angelo made the Creation of Eve the
central subject on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He had the
good taste to suggest, and yet to avoid, that literal rendering of
the biblical story which in the ruder representations borders on
the grotesque, and which Milton, with all his pomp of words, could
scarcely idealise."--_Mrs. Jameson, Hist. of Our Lord._
The lower portion of the ceiling is divided into triangles occupied by
the Prophets and Sibyls in solemn contemplation, accompanied by angels
and genii. Beginning from the left of the entrance, their order is,--
1. Jonah.
2. Jeremiah. | 7. Sibylla Libyca.
3. Sibylla Persica. | 8. Daniel.
4. Ezekiel. | 9. Sibylla Cumæa.
5. Sibylla Erythræa. | 10. Isaiah.
6. Joel. | 11. Sibylla Delphica.
12. Zachariah.
"The prophets and sibyls in the triangular compartments of the
curved portion of the ceiling are the largest figures in the whole
work; these, too, are among the most wonderful forms that modern
art has called into life. They are all represented seated, employed
with books or rolled manuscripts; genii stand near, or behind them.
These mighty beings sit before us pensive, meditative, inquiring,
or looking upwards with inspired countenances. Their forms and
movements, indicated by the grand lines and masses of the drapery,
are majestic and dignified. We see in them beings, who, while they
feel and bear the sorrows of a corrupt and sinful world, have power
to look for consolation into the secrets of the future. Yet the
greatest variety prevails in the attitudes and expression--each
figure is full of individuality. Zacharias is an aged man, busied
in calm and circumspect investigation; Jeremiah is bowed down
absorbed in thought--the thought of deep and bitter grief; Ezekiel
turns with hasty movement to the genius next to him, who points
upwards, with joyful expectation, &c. The sibyls are equally
characteristic: the Persian--a lofty, majestic woman, very aged;
the Erythræan--full of power, like the warrior goddess of wisdom;
the Delphic--like Cassandra, youthfully soft and graceful, but
with strength to bear the awful seriousness of
revelation."--_Kugler_, p. 304.
"The belief of the Roman Catholic Church in the testimony of the
Sibyl is shown by the well-known hymn, said to have been composed
by Pope Innocent III. at the close of the thirteenth century,
beginning with the verse:--
'Dies iræ, dies illa,
Solvet sæclum in favilla,
Teste David cum Sibylla.'